


Secrets and Lies

by Basnatural



Series: Secrets and Lies [2]
Category: Bastille (Band)
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angst, Arguing, Blackmail, Coming Out, Drama, First Time, Fluff and Smut, Homophobic Language, M/M, Manipulation, Masturbation, Oral Sex, Rimming, Sarcasm, Social Media, Texting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-02
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-10-27 02:16:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 31
Words: 61,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10799607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Basnatural/pseuds/Basnatural
Summary: After their tour and an exhausted band has some obligations to fulfil. Secrets from tour come out with some bad consequences





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone. This is my first fic, but have had the idea for a while. Will update as often as I can, but real life might catch up!! Obviously about the band, but everything else is my own idea. Hopefully it doesn't disappoint or upset anyone!!

Chapter One

“Right guys, are we ready?”

Dan stood at the cabin door looking at the rest of the band with worry etched into his features. He was absolutely shattered from touring and was beginning to regret saying yes to his baby sister when she asked for this particular ‘favour’. Why does it always seem like a good idea at the time when you agree to something?

“Yes Dan,” Woody replied. “The truck is packed, the instruments are ready, all we need is us and we’ll be set.” Dan could see the smirk from the under the drummer’s shaggy hair from the other side of the garden. He knew that the idea of being their own roady was making him excited and longing for a time now well past, but the bitchface Dan threw at him was enough to kill at thirty paces.

The plan was to get home, do this charity gig at his sister’s school and then relax for a well-earned break. They were staying at the really inappropriately named ‘cabin’ in the garden of Dan’s parent’s house on the outskirts of the familiar English village. Inappropriate mainly because it consisted of four bedrooms, en-suite and a larger kitchen than the band’s tour bus. But in the 48 hours since they arrived back to Heathrow Dan had had to have the reunion with the family (including the hyper 15-year-old who he was doing this for), had his hair cut by his actual hairdresser instead of by whichever guy was free on the road and had to personally check out the venue for the impromptu concert plus organise a set list. He was officially dead on his feet and getting tetchy.

“Um…” came a timid voice behind him and Dan swung round to see the apologetic face of his favourite person come into view. “Have you packed a change of clothes and stuff for your hair?” Dan looked down at his t-shirt – an old favourite which had holes under the arms and a torn seam, but he was too sentimental to throw it out. He could see that the baggy jeans he had on were walked through at the feet and he could see a toe through his trainer which was not his trademark Converse. He could feel the ends of his long fringe stuck to his head with sweat and began to feel foolish.

“Oh shit! Thanks Kyle, I knew we kept you around for a reason.” Dan rushed past and into the wooden building to look for what he needed.

“What, apart from something pretty to look at and to play all the instruments you wish you could play?!” he shouted snarkily and he saw the rolling eyes of Will and Woody as they walked away towards the Hilux to shut the boot.

“I’ll help him and we’ll be out in five” he shouted to them and he got a non-committal wave from Will as he walked. Kyle shrugged and walked back through the doorway and towards sounds of throwing and grunts. He got to the doorway of the bedroom and leant against the doorframe, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth under the crazy moustache he sported. He watched as Dan threw t-shirts and odd shoes around his room trying to find his normal gig attire and mumbling insults to himself as he went.

“You look like you’re about to have a stroke you know,” Kyle commented as he watched.

“Well, if I had some help instead of sarcasm I might get by a bit quicker!”

“You know you’re hot when you’re angry right?”

At this, Dan stopped and looked at him. He was slightly concerned that someone had heard and he scanned the living room behind Kyle. It’s not that Woody or Will would care if they knew, but both he and Kyle both knew that it could open a big can of worms with the fans if it did get out. Their manager and PR guru was adamant that they had to be seen as available or attainable to their fan base to make them successful and Dan was terrified that his carefully crafted music career would come down in tatters bringing his best friends down with him if anything went wrong.

“Kyle…”

“Look, you are _exhausted_. Calm down and let me help you.”

Kyle stalked over to his weary partner and took the single red sock from his hand. “ _This_ is not going to help you,” he said gesturing with the sock and putting it into the nearby washing pile with a disgusted look on his face.

Dan flushed with embarrassment and stared at the floor. At this, Kyle reached out and hooked his thumb and first finger around the older man’s chin. It still amazed him after all this time that Dan could feel so insecure about everything. He was brilliant, handsome and compassionate. He moved in and pressed his lips to Dan’s and drew a small sigh from him. The kiss was chaste and soft, but it seemed to ground Dan in a way that he was expecting and as Kyle pulled away he could see some semblance of composure return to his face.

They had finally given in to the urge between them as the tour started and it had been nothing but stolen moments between them and never anything more serious. He wished he could take this further – with travelling back from the US with the guys and now constantly being around Dan’s family, it had been a good 5 days since they had had any proper alone time - but it really wasn’t the right moment for that right now.

“I can’t find anything in this place. I don’t even know if I have clean clothes to wear!”

“Well it’s a good thing that I know things isn’t it,” Kyle replied as he reached behind Dan to pick up a small overlooked duffel with everything in it. “I packed this for you earlier when you were out. Everything is in it and smells meadow fresh,” he joked as he handed it over.

“Thank you.” Dan said, taking the bag and giving a small, sheepish smile. They stared at each other for a moment and Dan honestly thought he would never get used to the depth of Kyle’s eyes and the emotion and joy that always seemed to sparkle there. The thought of throwing the younger man on the bed – so close to them right now – and taking him in all the ways he had spent the last three months thinking of was doing a rampage through his head. Kyle could see this reflected in Dan’s eyes as the pupils began to dilate slowly as the staring continued.

A loud bang jolted them back into reality as the front door flew open and Will stood in the empty space.

“Seriously guys, are you ready or are you still sniping at each other?”

Rolling his eyes, Dan took one last longing look at his bedroom and silently cursed to himself for the 100th time that day that he had to do something other than what he really wanted to do.

“Yes, clothes and hair product are safely packed and we are now ready to launch…I hope.”

“Nerd,” Kyle and Will said together and Kyle hooked a ‘brotherly’ arm around Dan’s neck to pull him from the room behind the bassist.

Quietly, so he was sure only Dan would hear, he whispered, “If you’re good for the rest of tonight, who knows what might happen in the high school bathroom…” and the soft tufts of his beard stroked against the tender areas of Dan’s ears.

Dan whimpered and Kyle knew that his baggy jeans would now be hiding his arousal at the thought of what might be coming. With a smirk he dropped his arm and ran after Will.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, thanks for the comments and Kudos!! Its a bit of a filler chapter this, but will hopefully get going quicker soon. I wanted to write more but think this is a good place to stop for now. There will be a bit of angst coming but I hope you like for now.

Chapter Two

 

As the car door slammed Dan looked to his right at the driver as Kyle climbed in.

 

“Right, your sense of direction better have improved if you’re the one telling me where to go.”

 

“Oh _hell_ no! You’re not driving are you?” Dan was outraged and heard the others sniggering in the back like school girls. “Don’t you guys encourage him!!”

 

“What’s wrong with my driving?”

 

“You drive like a grandma and the most rural you’ve ever driven is the A21 to Hastings!” Dan smirked at Woody’s pretty accurate description of his lover’s abilities behind the wheel. Kyle's eyes looked down and appeared almost hurt at that.

 

“At least tell me you’re insured and we’ll get going.” Dan conceded. He could't have his lover look like that for long. At that Kyle gave him a wink and a nod, started the ignition and pulled out of the drive onto the quiet but windy rural roads.

 

All was quiet with only Dan giving slight directions for a couple of minutes as the boys took in their surroundings. It was a beautiful early May day and the sun was shining. It was only 2pm but they had to get to the school for their end of day so they had plenty of time to sound check and set up.

 

Suddenly the opening chords for Send Them Off went off and Dan looked confused around the cab of the truck. Woody snorted and he realised it was coming from his jeans pocket.

 

“Seriously Woody can you keep your hands off my phone!!” It was the seventh or eighth time he had changed the ringtone on the singer’s phone and Dan was really starting to wonder whether he was actually an IT whiz in disguise. “I’m gonna have to change my pin code AGAIN for this now!”

 

“Well if you would stop using our birthdays for it, it may be a bit more of a challenge!” Another one of those death stares was thrown at him and Dan quickly read the message that had come through.

 

_Ella – hope your set list isnt complete yet! had a vote at school and you have to play an act of kindness. See you soon bro! xx_

 

A loud groan came from the back of his throat and he threw his head back on the head rest.

 

“What’s up?” Kyle asked, concerned and turned to him.

 

“EYES ON THE ROAD!!” Will shouted from behind him and grasped the door handle.

 

Kyle ignored him but did turn back towards the front.

 

“That was Ella and she’s had a vote and we have to play An Act of Kindness at the gig. I’ve already made the set list and let’s just say that’s not on it after the reception it got in Boise.”

 

“The just say you can’t do it. Simple”

 

“You know I can’t say no to her. That’s why we’re in this mess to start with!”

 

“We’ll sort it, don’t worry.” Kyle said kindly and the silence that followed was loaded.

 

Dan quickly looked at the back seat and Woody and Will were engrossed in some kind of Civil War talk about how Iron Man could never have won the fight at the Airport when Ant Man was giant and he seemed happy that they hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary.

 

The rest of the ride in was uneventful and both Dan and Kyle were very pleased with themselves as they pulled in at 2:30 – Dan for getting them there without getting lost and Kyle just for getting them there. They pulled into the space that had been allocated for them and looked around. Will and Woody gave Dan a look that implied _'damn you Dan for needing to be everywhere so early!'_ The school didn’t let out for another hour so Dan took the lead and opened the doors and led everyone towards the reception to find out what to do. They were signed in by the surly brunette woman on the desk and given little plastic cards that they all knew they would lose in the next 10 minutes and followed her to the assembly hall where Dan had been told the gig would be.

 

It was the smallest place they had played for over 2 years, but when Ella had asked and said it was for a local anti-bullying charity, Dan couldn’t say no after what he had been through when he was young. It was pretty much like any other assembly hall in the country. Wooden floors and slatted wooden walls, a smallish stage at one end with moth eaten curtains at the sides. Polished wooden boards with gold writing lined the walls claiming the names of previous prefects, head boys and girls and best in the school. There were fire doors at the side leading onto the car park and Will immediately pounced on these as an excellent way to get the gear in from the truck.

 

“Don’t make too much noise or disruption. The children are still in class. As you were told not to be here until the day was over I am doing you a favour. We will ask you to leave if you make any problems.” The woman tutted with this and stalked out of the room with four pairs of wide eyes staring at her back.

 

“Well, I guess she’s not a fan,” muttered Kyle.

 

“Was probably hoping for a One Direction reunion or something,” replied Woody with a smile.

 

“Shut up guys and help me figure out how to set up.” Dan was getting tetchy again and he wasn’t too sure why. It might be the fact that he was in High School again, and while it wasn’t his old one, all the feelings of inadequacies, loneliness and fear seemed to be flooding back to him. He just wanted to get in, get done and get gone, but also make it a good night for the charity and for his sister.

 

“Because we’re only doing a 45 minute set, there’s a DJ for afterwards,” explained Dan to the guys. “He’s got to be set up behind us on the stage, so I was thinking having Woody and my stuff up there, and then having Kyle’s synths and Will down the front here?”

 

“You mean have us with the teenagers?” Will said looking a little bit worried himself.

 

“C’mon bro, we’re down with the kids yo” Kyle said in the most ridiculous way with hand gestures and everything. The corners of Dan’s mouth curled upwards at this and he hid a giggle.

 

“I think it’s the only way to go. I mean we’ve scaled down a lot of the stuff as it is.” Dan said and he was already trying to produce changes to some of his songs in his head as he moved.

 

The kit was brought in, set up and they managed a quick sound check before the surly brunette came back in to warn them again about noise. Deciding it would be best to leave the rest of it until after the final bell had gone they all agreed a quick break was in order. Will and Woody ended up gravitating towards the ‘coffee shop’ that looked like a recent addition to the school campus and Dan started winding up cables to get them out of everyone’s way for when they came back.

 

Kyle was watching him again from the fire exit and he started hearing the familiar melody coming from Dan indicating he was starting to do vocal warm ups. He gave an inward sigh of contentment and walked up behind him putting his long arms around the middle of the shorter man. Dan stilled and looked up into the face of the moustachioed man.

 

“What are you doing?” Dan asked.

 

“Well, I’ve been watching you worry and steadily get more tense throughout the day and now we’re alone for the first time in a loooong time….” He stopped at that and let the rest of his sentence go unsaid.

 

At that Dan leant backwards and let the strong arms envelop him and shield him from his worries. Kyle bent his head forward and whispered in his ear “it will be fine, this one last gig and then we get to relax and do all the things we’ve only talked about for _three months_ …”

 

That was enough for Dan in that moment and he twisted in Kyle’s arms whimpering _“Ky,”_ and reached his head up and locked their mouths together in a slow kiss with so much promise. Dan was looking for more almost immediately and pressed his tongue against the younger man’s plump lips and they both sighed as their tongues slowly entwined together. Dan’s hands moved up towards the taller man’s hair and he twisted his fingers through the short soft strands. Kyle’s arms pulled him close and his hands started working their way down to Dan’s perfect jean clad ass.

 

The final bell suddenly went jerking them both back into the current time and they slowly pulled away smiling at each other. Dan felt more relaxed and Kyle was certainly happier that his best friend looked better. They went back to tidying up and waited for the others to come back.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter today folks. Inspiration hit and had to get this up!! Thanks again for reading xx

Chapter Three

 

Kyle and Dan were still trying to sort out the loose cables when the doors banged and Ella came rushing in wildly. Her long dark hair – the same colour as Dan’s – flowing in a messy pony tail behind her and her school sweater tied hurriedly around her waist. She ran up and gave a bear hug to her big brother. Dan eyed what else she was wearing.

 

“Seriously, mum and dad let you out of the house like that?” His brotherly instincts flaring up suddenly. She was wearing a pleated skirt but it was exceedingly short and not leaving much to the imagination. When Kyle glanced over his shoulder to look he could kind of see Dan’s point. She had black heels on which made her much the same height as her older brother and a skin tight white school shirt buttoned barely above her bra. Her black and white school tie was slung low around her neck and became a focal point to the centre of her chest and Kyle couldn’t help thinking that if his 15-year-old self caught sight of that he would be a goner.

 

Ella rolled her eyes and just made a non-committal noise and at that point Dan knew that his parents had absolutely no idea what she wore when she made it to school.

 

“Anyway, did you get my text?!” She rushed on and looked around the room in a bit of awe. “I can’t believe you are actually doing this for me! I know that high school kids aren’t usually your kind of thing, but thank you soooooooooo much Dan!” and at that she hugged him again.

 

“It’s cool, don’t be stupid.” He replied and as she moved away Dan noticed another girl looking around the room. She looked like she was slightly older than Ella and moved with that air of confidence only a dangerous teenage girl could. Dan was already wary of her and pointed to her and asked “who’s that?”

 

“Sharon!” Ella called, “meet my brother. Dan, this is Sharon. She’s one of my best friends!”

 

At that, Dan took a better look at her. She was wearing much the same uniform as Ella, but she had skin tight trousers on instead of a skirt. She had shoulder length dark blond hair with a slight wave that she had loose around her face. She had a face full of make-up that made her appear even more adult close up. But it was the way she walked that made Dan concerned. She had an air of ‘I get what I want’ around her and he was worried about that.

 

“Hi Sharon,” Dan said and gave a slight wave with his hand as he said it. “What year are you in?”

 

“Oh I’m almost done with this place,” she replied. “Anyway, age is only a number right?” She raised a well-manicured eye brow at him and smirked as she turned again. He wasn’t sure but was she _rolling her hips at him_ as she moved?

 

“Uh, yeah,” piped up Kyle. “A pretty important one if you ask me.” And he was giving a pretty good bitch face of his own to her back as she moved. They were both watching her now and she seemed to sense this herself. She turned back and looked back at them. She gave Kyle a dismissive look and kept talking.

 

“I’m a bit of a singer myself you know.” She said more as a statement than a question.

 

“Uh…really?” Dan replied, not really knowing what else to say.

 

“Oh, yeah! Sharon’s always like the main draw at all of our talent contests and she’s like come runner up at loads of Pontin’s shows.” Ella gushed.

 

“Maybe you should have done the gig tonight then…” Kyle said under his breath and Dan stifled a laugh and elbowed him in the ribs. At that Will and Woody bounded back in through the fire exit with a loud bang. Sharon and Ella whipped round at the noise and as Ella laughed at them, Sharon gave them a disdainful look and Dan thought he heard her mutter “I can’t believe he has friends like _them_ ”.

 

Dan decided now was the time to do a proper sound check and run through the set list and said as much to his baby sister.

 

“Cool, no probs bro!! Sharon’s dad is picking us up and I’m getting ready at her house. I’ll see you about six yeah?”

 

Dan agreed and gave a quick hug before going. She ran to the others and gave them all cursory hugs before heading back to Sharon who hadn’t moved.

 

“See you later Sharon,” Dan said politely and she turned to look at him with a glint in her eye.

 

“Yeah, definitely. I can’t wait to see how it’s all really done. Maybe we can have a good talk about it afterwards?” A slight hint of seduction was clearly coming through then and Dan was certain he wasn’t imagining that.

 

“Yeah, me and Woody can show you some stuff I’m sure you’ll be interested in.” Kyle interrupted and put a slightly possessive hand on Dan’s shoulder.

 

“Oh it’s really just singing tips I’m looking for,” she replied casually and walked out arm in arm with Ella with a sly backwards glance. The door shut with a finite bang behind them.

 

Woody came up behind the two of them and whistled low. “Man, she’s hot for a high school kid!”

 

Both Kyle and Dan glared at him. “Wood, man, don’t be disgusting. She’s like the same age as my sister.”

 

“She is so not 15. Will, tell me I’m right.” Woody replied as he walked back to the stage and jumped up to get behind his kit.

 

“I’m staying out of this!” Will called from behind him and started tuning up his bass.

 

“I don’t like her.” Kyle said quietly. “She looks like she’s up to something.”

 

“C’mon Ky,” Dan said. “She’s only a teenager. Admittedly a slightly scary one, but it’s not like she can do anything. We’re adults now remember?” he added with a chuckle and wasn't sure whether he as trying to convince Kyle or himself. 

 

“I s’pose. Gonna keep my eye on her though. No one gets to make those eyes at you but me!”

 

“I would expect nothing less.” Dan replied and making sure that the other two were engrossed with their instruments he gave a quick squeeze to Kyle’s left ass cheek, winked seductively and jumped up on stage next to Woody.

 

“Bloody tease.” Kyle muttered and went behind the synths.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! Thank you so much for the continuing support for this. I hope everyone is liking it and bearing with the story. Please leave me any comments or suggestions. I have no beta so any mistakes are mine xx

Chapter Four

 

The change in set list ended up not being as big a problem as Dan had first thought. They managed to move a couple of the songs around and slip in ‘An Act of Kindness’ relatively easily and it didn’t mess up the overall feel of the gig. Dan had wanted most of the songs to be ones where people can relate it back to bullying and moving through adversity and he believed he had a good list. Kyle obviously agreed, but more surprising was when Woody and Will both separately clapped him on the back to say what a good job he had done.

 

The run through went without a hitch too and all of the good luck was beginning to worry the lead singer. What was the old adage? Bad dress rehearsal, good main show? Well surely that meant the opposite might be true as well?

 

At some point Will flagged down the surly receptionist and with his most gracious and polite smile asked where they could go to freshen up and change. He seemed to have gotten on her good side with this, because she started to flush and stutter and point them towards the teacher’s lounge and toilets which were apparently much more spacious than the students.

 

“Look at that,” Kyle whispered. “It’s Will Farquarson, Grumpy Woman Whisperer!” And with that Woody let out a major snort and the disgusted look was back on the older woman’s face.

 

“Be quick please and DON’T touch anything!” She griped as she left them.

 

“Well done Kyle, I was getting somewhere with her!”

 

“Didn’t think she was your type mate to be honest.” Kyle replied and Will slapped him on the shoulder.

 

They all changed pretty quickly and Dan felt like he was putting on his disguise and felt a bit of protective armour going on as he put his skinny black jeans, WWCOMMS t-shirt and black Converse on. He moved into the toilets with Kyle to do his hair carrying his multitude of product with him. Woody stared as he went and said, “I still can’t believe how much stuff you put in your hair!”

 

“Hey, at least it’s necessary. Have you seen Kyle’s evening beard and moustache treatments?” Will replied. Dan and Kyle both flipped them off as they walked out of the room.

 

There was silence as both the men stared at themselves in the mirror to see what needed to be done. With his hair being cut and styled so recently, it was really just using the product to get his signature quiff in place and off of his eyes. Oh and put in his contacts. He couldn’t forget those. He finished up and stood watching Kyle style his moustache with wax and trim some bits off the side of his beard.

 

He was so gone for this man. He could now admit it to himself. Ever since they first kissed three months ago when drunk and alone on the tour bus he had simply gravitated to wherever Kyle was. It was like he had to be in his orbit and he wasn’t happy or settled unless he was.

 

“Did no one ever tell you that staring was creepy?” Kyle said quietly, all the time gazing back into Dan’s dazzling eyes. He was never quite sure what colour they were. Almost like a mood ring from when they were kids, his eye colour shifted with how he was feeling.

 

Dan looked away, his cheeks reddening and started cleaning up his mess. Kyle reached out and grabbed his wrist gently and pulled him towards his right side. He kissed Dan’s temple and snaked his right arm around Dan’s waist and under his t-shirt to rest on his stomach, just above his jeans. He hooked his fingers under the waist of his jeans and Dan whimpered softly and closed his eyes. Kyle’s fingers gently moved down in a soothing motion slowly towards the bulge which was, by now, getting larger by the second in anticipation and he ghosted the tips over what was clearly the head of Dan’s waiting cock.

 

“GUYS! Come on!” came the bark through the doors. “I’m sure you’re more than gorgeous enough for a room full of teenagers!”

 

“Screw you Woody,” Dan whined so only Kyle could hear and Kyle chuckled softly. He gave Dan’s cock a slight squeeze eliciting a moan from Dan’s throat and whispered “later” as he pulled his hand free.

 

Kyle went out first to give Dan a bit of time to calm himself down. ‘The bastard’, Dan thought. Always when he was in skinny jeans and then he leaves him high and dry. Cold thoughts started running through his head to try and stop the bulge getting any bigger and giving them both away. Another bang at the door and Dan started. He picked up all of his stuff and opened the door.

 

“OK, OK. _Jesus_ you’re impatient.” Dan threw his stuff back in the duffel Kyle had packed for him and followed the rest of them out of the lounge area. The receptionist was waiting for them and actually gave them an appraising look.

 

“Well, you don’t look as delinquent as you did earlier and that’s an improvement.”

 

The four friends looked at each other and were unsure what to say. It had gotten to the point with this woman that this was actually a compliment which was startling. Dan was starting to think that all receptionists must have some sort of built in pit bull when she then added:

 

“Mr Addams the headmaster wants to have a quick word before everyone gets here so he’s waiting for you in the assembly hall.”

 

They all trooped inside and an elderly man was standing in the middle of the stage looking at everything. The DJ had also arrived earlier and was also setting up his stuff behind Woody’s kit and when the headmaster started talking he stopped and looked round too.

 

“I just wanted to say thank you so much for doing this small concert for our school,” he started. “It means a lot to us and through tickets sales alone we have already made a significant amount for the charity we are supporting. Young Ella was so happy to volunteer you for our cause – “

 

“I bet she was,” Dan thought to himself.

 

“And that you agreed means a lot. So the night will go some food for the children and some dancing starting at about 6:30. Bastille, you will go on at about 7:30 for about 45 minutes and then we have our local DJ Andrew here will play until the end at 10:30. Does that sound alright to you boys?” The question was asked, but all of them had the idea that it was coming from a man who was not used to being disagreed with and they all just nodded in agreement.

 

Mr Addams seemed happy with this and walked lightly out of the room.

 

“Boy, school dances in my day were a hall with a crappy DJ and us all dancing to the Macarena and Aqua.” Will said to no one in particular, but everyone – including the DJ, Andrew – all murmured in agreement.

 

“Well, it’s six so we have a little while before we do anything. I’m going out for a smoke and see if that coffee shop is still open.” Kyle moved towards the fire exit and Will and Woody started after him. He stopped at the door when he realised that Dan wasn’t following. “You coming Dan?”

 

“Nah, Ella will be here soon and I just want to double check a few things. Get me a flat white if they do it? Extra shot please.” Kyle nodded and went out with a last quick glance behind him.

 

Dan went back to checking everything, making sure he had enough sticks, that his keyboard was ready to go. Just a few last minute things his OCD wouldn’t let him forget. Andrew was pottering around behind him and Dan looked up and checked none of their stuff was in his way.

 

The door opened and he looked towards it. Two young women walked straight in and up to Dan and it literally took him two minutes to realise who they were. Ella was wearing a black bodyhugging dress with spaghetti straps. It was cut to about 2 inches above her knee and the sides were laced up and it was easy to see she was not wearing underwear or a bra.

 

“OH HELL NO!” Dan shouted at her. “No way, I am not letting my baby sister go anywhere in that!”

 

Ella rolled her eyes again. “Dan, don’t be so silly. This isn’t the first time I’ve worn this and mum and dad trust me.” Dan raised his eyebrows and gave her a disbelieving look. “Don’t believe me? Ring mum and ask her.” And she waved her phone at him. He waved it away and grumbled something about kids not being kids anymore and Ella giggled.

 

“Hi Dan,” came a low seductive voice from behind Ella. Ella moved out of the way to chat to Andrew and Dan noticed the other girl. Sharon was dolled up more than she had been earlier. She had her hair slicked back but hanging loose and straight on her shoulders. She had clearly had some self tan done and her make up was sparkling and glittery. But it was her dress that really made Dan stop. It was black and some sort of stretch fabric that fit all the right places. There was a collar around her neck with a thin piece of fabric going to her crotch. A deep plunging V neckline went all the way to her belly button and there was a double slit at the front that left very little to the imagination. There was snaps at the crotch and to finish it off she was wearing spaghetti strap stiletto sandals. All of this made her look much older than her teenage years, and people would easily mistake her for someone in her 20’s.

 

“Sharon, hi.” Dan finally got his voice back. He really wasn’t interested in, well, _her_ , but he was intrigued that her family let her out like that. “Your parents must be a lot more liberal than I would ever be.” He added.

 

“Oh well now I’m nearly 18 there’s not much more that they can tell me to do.”

 

Ah, so she is older than Ella thought Dan. And then he thought ‘well that wouldn’t stop me if you were my kid’, but he just shrugged and nodded, trying not to engage in much more conversation.

 

“Coffee for you, my dear sir!” Kyle waltzed in with a small cup in his hand and presented it to Dan with a low bow.

 

“Why _thank you,_ my dear sir!” Dan replied and took it from him, winked, smiled and went back to his checks. He didn’t see it himself, but Kyle noticed the evil look coming his way from the older girl and he backed away looking around. He noticed Ella and startled.

 

“ _Damn_ girl! Whatchu wearing??” he said in a fake – very fake – American accent.

 

Ella giggled at that. “See Dan, that was the reaction I was expecting!”

 

“If I gave you any other reaction than the one you got we would be in a bit of trouble,” Dan replied. At that she shrugged again and went back to talking to Andrew…or was that flirting? Dan would definitely have to keep an eye on that tonight. He saw Sharon sidle up and join them too and felt relief when he realised she wasn’t next to him anymore.

 

“What the hell is that girl wearing?!” Kyle whispered in his ear, obviously talking about Sharon.

 

“I have no idea, but I really wish she wasn’t hanging around Ella right now. And that she would leave me alone. But mainly the Ella thing.”

 

“Yeah, I’d rather she leave you alone if I’m being honest. I’m serious Dan I think she’s trouble.”

 

Dan sighed and subtly leant on his boyfriend’s shoulder. “I know, but it’s just one night,” he said and they lapsed into silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone was interested, this was the idea for Ella's dress - http://www.gojane.com/124865.html
> 
> and this is the one for Sharon's - http://www.gojane.com/123686.html


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK guys, so finally a bit of smut here for you, if thats what you've been waiting for?! Please be kind!! Hope you enjoy.

Chapter Five

 

“So, thanks guys for coming out to see us! We’re Bastille, and if you wanna jump around and act like an idiot with me please feel free!!”

 

At that the opening chords to Bad Blood play and Dan’s got his game face on for the next 45 minutes. He’s not thinking about crazy teenagers or secret boyfriends; all he concentrates on is the music in that moment. The short gig goes well and he likes the reception from the younger crowd. They seem hyped and ready for it and they were all going as mad as he was. He noticed that Ella and her friends – including Sharon – were all congregated at Kyle’s side of the makeshift stage and some of her younger looking group were making heart eyes at his boyfriend. At that Dan smirked to himself and wondered whether Kyle had seen them. Sharon’s eyes though - they seemed to be focused on him completely. Every time he glanced that way, she was lasered in on what he was doing and she had a permanent half sly grin in place as he moved. It was disconcerting to say the least and after he noticed he tried to avoid any looks to that corner.

 

When the set ended they all left the large hall to a small backstage area they had taken over while they were waiting for the kids to eat and their time to start. Will and Woody started to relax and pulled a couple of cans of beer from their bags and offered one up to Dan and Kyle. Taking them graciously they popped them open and drank deeply. Kyle noticed Dan’s Adam’s apple bob as he drank and suddenly something just burst in his head.

 

“Dan, I need you to come and look at something.” He said abruptly. After strange, questioning looks from the other three he qualified with, “it’s something I noticed on the truck earlier. I’m just wondering whether it’s OK to drive home.” He knew this was possibly the shittest excuse he could ever come up with as Dan was in no way a mechanic and knew nothing about cars, but they all seemed to take it and went back to what they were doing.

 

“Do they seriously think we’re stupid?” Woody asks Will as they watch the lovers leave.

 

“Ah, just leave them to their fun,” Will smirks and he goes back to drinking his beer.

 

Dan and Kyle both left the backstage area and went through the make shift dining and soft drinks area which had been set up outside the assembly hall. Kyle moved quickly and Dan was struggling to keep up with him and was calling for him to slow down. As they neared the front door, Kyle suddenly turned away from it, grabbed Dan’s arm and pulled him through the dark halls to a room which had been left open for some reason. He slammed the door behind them, grabbed Dan by the waist and plastered him with his own body to the back of the door.

 

A moment passed as they both stared at each other and they could hear the trashy pop music in the background from where the disco had started.

 

“You have no fucking idea how much I have needed you alone like this all day.” Kyle suddenly growls and roughly takes Dan’s lips with his own. There was no gradual build up this time and Kyle pushes his tongue into Dan’s mouth greedily, savouring the residual beer tang and finally finding the taste which he only knows is _Dan._ Dan softly whimpers, but was giving as good as he got and he starts to run his hands up and down Kyle’s t-shirt, searching for the hem so he can finally feel the warm skin of his lover.

 

They break away finally to catch their breath and Dan just looks at Kyle and says, “no teasing this time, you better be willing to follow through with this!”

 

Kyle chuckles and just winks at him. He leans in for another blistering kiss and his long fingers move immediately to Dan’s waist to undo the button of his jeans. He deftly unzips them and roughly yanks both his trousers and boxers down to his knees as Dan gasps his name.

 

Kyle slowly releases Dan’s mouth and – keeping eye contact the entire time – sinks to his knees. He becomes eye level with Dan’s gorgeous cock which was just bobbing in front of him begging to be touched. The head was glistening with pre-come as Dan anticipated what was to come. Kyle flicks his eyes back up to Dan and licks his lips, and before another word could be uttered he moves quickly and completely swallows Dan whole.

 

Dan loses any train of thought at that. In the three months they had had the occasional mutual hand job and a lot of making out, but this is the first time Kyle has done this to him. He’s amazed at the younger man’s lack of gag reflex and as he feels Kyle’s hands reach for his hips he has to resist the urge to immediately thrust into his mouth. Kyle’s tongue slowly rolls around the head of Dan’s cock and tongues at the slit eliciting delicious groans come from the singer. To Kyle, those noises are better than anything the band has released and makes him even harder in his own trousers. He releases one of Dan’s hips and manages to release his own throbbing member from its confines and starts to stroke quickly up and down his own impressive length.

 

With the release of one of his hips, Dan can’t stop himself now and starts to thrust with earnest into Kyle, essentially fucking his boyfriend’s mouth. Dan has no idea how, but Kyle continues to swirl his tongue at the same time and the tightening starts coming quicker in Dan’s stomach.

 

“Ky…I’m not gonna last!” He manages to gasp out and with that his release comes fast and hot into the back of the younger man’s throat. Dan lets out a long, loud moan and gasp as he comes and this noise is it for Kyle. He twists his hand at the tip of his own cock and suddenly all he feels is sticky, warm liquid covering it.

 

Kyle slowly pulls off and licks up all the come he may have missed from Dan. Dan starts to whimper again as he becomes over sensitive at the ministrations and Kyle stands to give him a soft, chaste kiss to his lips. Dan notices Kyle avoiding him with his hand and he pulls it up towards his mouth to see the mess adorning it. He considers it for a minute and then pulls the hand to his mouth and licks away the cooling come with his own tongue. With this Kyle groans himself and just says, “God babe, you are so hot!”

 

Finishing up, Dan just smirks and says, “Well I can’t have you scaring the children now can I?” and at that they both chuckle – foreheads pressed together and heavy breaths against each other’s faces. They both take a moment and then pull apart to put themselves back together. Dan grabs his boxers and jeans back up and fastens them and then watches Kyle do the same. He looks at Kyle them and he looks thoroughly fucked. “We are gonna have to take a minute before we go back or everyone’ll know what’s been happening,” Dan says.

 

“Well, after that I need a smoke anyway, so why don’t we head out and do that?” Kyle replies. Nodding in agreement, Dan and Kyle move away from the door and slowly open it to see if there is anyone out there. It all seems dark and quiet still so they both head out and back towards the front door where they can see a group of the older kids already having a fag break.

 

Behind them, what they don’t see is another door opening and a blond girl in a black revealing dress appearing with a dangerous smirk on her face as if she had just won the lottery.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

“So high school this time is a little different when I was last here!” Dan jokes to Kyle as he waits for him to finish his cigarette. Kyle chuckles and stubs out his butt under his foot. They had managed to find an area that was not filled with kids smoking and they had another private moment. Kyle had Dan pushed up against another wall, his arms around the older man’s waist and Dan’s arms draped over Kyle’s shoulders. Kyle moved in for another kiss. Much more slowly this time and with no intent to go any further. Their lips moved together in sync and they both opened their mouths at exactly the same moment to let their tongues swirl together as if becoming one. Dan sighed contentedly as they both broke away at the same time to catch their breaths.

 

“C’mon gorgeous,” Kyle says, “Let’s go get you some food.”

 

They head back inside and towards food. Kyle fully knows that after a pretty decent orgasm Dan will always need food, just like he always needs a smoke, so they head in and pick up a plate of chips to snack on.

 

They head over to a plastic dining set that had been set up and Dan climbs into the chairs that were actually attached to it.

 

“I’ll be right back babe. I’m gonna get more beers from the guys.” Kyle says and wanders off into the crowd of teenagers, high fiving a few as he passed. Dan smirks and starts to pick at his plate for a couple of moments. A shadow sits in front of him on the other side of the table.

 

“That was quick,” he said and looks up into the eyes of Sharon. “Oh, sorry, thought it was Kyle.” He apologises quickly and looks back down to his plate of half eaten chips.

 

“Oh that’s OK. I won’t take it personally.” She replies and smirks. “You sounded really good tonight,” she added and Dan looked up again and catches her eye. There’s a flash of something in them and Dan’s shuddered. He wasn’t completely sure she was talking about the gig.

 

“Thanks, it went alright. Just catching up on some energy,” he said pointing to the plate. He knew he sounded idiotic, but this girl was always putting him on the back foot.

 

“So, you and Kyle seem to be good friends,” she says. It doesn’t sound like a question. Dan just nods to agree with her. “I wish I had a _good friend_ like that who I could _fool around_ with,” Dan startles and looks directly at her. “You know, like you two, always making jokes and things.” She adds slyly. Dan splutters slightly and then Kyle appears behind her with two cans.

 

“Hey! Looks like an interesting conversation going on here,” he says. “Dan, I think Ella’s over there wanting to introduce you to some of her friends.” Dan glances behind to where Kyle gestures and with a great sigh of relief he gets up to go over asking Kyle to look after his chips for him.

 

Kyle vaults over the table with some surprising grace and grabs Sharon’s wrist before she has a chance to get up and follow. “What are you doing?” He asks, with a vacant smile on his face making the words sound a lot friendlier that she knew he meant. It was then that she knew Kyle had overheard everything that had been said to Dan.

 

“I don’t know what you mean!” She says, trying to act affronted.

 

“You’re up to something, and I want to know what it is.” Kyle says, bluntly. He had had it with the innocent flirting she had been throwing at Dan all day and the sly insulting tones she had been giving to himself.

 

“I’m not up to anything, _Kyle_ ,” stressing the man’s name with intent. “I’m just trying to get some inside knowledge for my singing career!” she adds lightly.

 

Then her laugh gets a bit louder and flirtier, “Kyle!” she shrieks and laughs again, and everyone looks around at her. “Don’t be so silly! I’m Ella’s friend!” She wrenches her hand out of his grasp and saunters away slowly saying, “I’m really embarrassed but flattered at the same time!!” to a few other teenagers as she passes them.

 

Ella and Dan then reappear and the teenager grabs both Kyle and Dan’s wrists in each of her hands and pulls them towards the dance floor. “I am getting my brother out of his head for a night!” she shouts at them both over the loud music. “C’mon Kyle!! Help him wind down!!” Kyle, still agape at what had just happened is just being led anywhere at that moment.  She heads over to where Woody and Will had also emerged and they all start jumping around to some Avicii and Taylor Swift.

 

The secret lovers were both thinking about the strange interaction they had had with Sharon not moments before when she danced up to the group and started grinding against Dan. Immediately embarrassed and uncomfortable, Dan tried to excuse himself from the group and he could see from the corner of his eyes that Kyle was getting more and more frustrated.

 

“Uh uh Dan! You're not going anywhere,” Ella said as she noticed what was happening. The music suddenly changed to an Ed Sheeran song. “Stay for a slow dance! You can dance with Sharon and I can dance with Kyle!!”

 

“But…. what about Woody and Will? They need company too you know!” He tried to counter.

 

“They’ve just gone to get a drink, so you don’t have to worry about them,” she replied. Ella edged closer to his ear, “please Dan. She’s a good friend and if you do this you’ll really make her night…”

 

Dan internally scoffed at that but, as has already been established, cannot say no to his sister when she asks anything. Kyle also notices the exact moment he gives in to her, rolls his eyes and drags a hand over his face sighing softly. Ella moves to the younger man and Kyle puts a gentlemanly hand around her back and has a very chaste slow dance to ‘Thinking out Loud’.

 

As that happens, Sharon moves over to Dan, and as Dan tries to hold her just as innocently as Kyle is holding Ella, she pulls him towards her and puts both hands around his neck. She manoeuvres them to a very quiet corner of the dancefloor where there appeared to be a lot more privacy. She then started swaying her hips in a figure eight next his groin and pushing up firmly against him. She starts to move her hands down his back and cup at his ass and he tries to pull away quickly. She’s stronger than she looks though and keeps him right where he is. She puts her leg between his thighs and starts to rub again and appears extremely disappointed when she gets absolutely no reaction from the man at all.

 

“Sharon, I really think enough is enough…” Dan starts and tries to move away again.

 

“Dan, please,” she begs seductively. “You know you’ve been thinking about this all afternoon. Just let me take care of you…” and with that she lunges forward and shoves her tongue into his mouth trying to get him to react. He pulls his head backwards and realises she has him up against a wall, but instead of it being a turn on like it had been not 20 minutes earlier with the man he loved, he was disgusted and panicking.

 

He manages to squirm away quickly before anything else has a chance to happen, puts both hands on her shoulders to hold her away and shouts; “Stop! Leave me alone! It’s never going to happen!”

 

Her face suddenly clouds over and he thinks he can see evil in her eyes. “Big mistake Dan. You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into now.” She stalks off with that, and Dan just turns and escapes the confines of the dark room and flashing lights.

 

He manages to find the teacher’s lounge they had sat in earlier and shot a quick text off to the rest of the guys after he collapsed into an old armchair.

 

_Dan – Hey guys, not feeling good. Text me when you’re packing up_

Feeling more secure in the darkness of the teacher’s lounge and more comfortable, he finally lets his worries overcome him and he feels completely exhausted. He curls up with his legs under him and buries his head in his arms. It suddenly hits him, what Sharon has been trying to say, do and insinuate and he realised that something bad was definitely coming their way. With that he starts sobbing into his arms hoping the fallout isn’t going to be as bad as he fears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone enjoyed this...I think a bit more angst is still to come for these guys though : (  
> Please let me know your thoughts!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

 

“Dan, baby, wake up.”

 

Bleary eyed and confused Dan opens his eyes and looks directly into the deep, dark brown eyes of the man he loves. He could feel his eyelids stuck to his contacts and he silently curses himself for falling asleep.

 

“What time is it?” He asks.

 

“Half eleven. Everything’s packed up and we’re ready to head off. Ella’s gone back to stay at Sharon’s house. We were worried when we couldn’t find you.” He looked directly into Dan’s eyes and could tell that something was up. Dan relented when he saw the concern and told Kyle everything that had happened.

 

“She WHAT?” roared Kyle. “I can’t believe that! I knew she was up to something!”

 

“Kyle, it’s fine. She’s a teenager with a crush. I handled it. She can’t do anything. For fucks sake I’m a grown ass 30-year-old man!” He emphasised. “I’m just tired and strung out. I needed to crash and I have. Let’s go home.”

 

They head to where the truck is ready and waiting and Will and Woody are already inside.

 

“Hey! Here is his!” Woody says as they get in. “You alright man?”

 

“Yeah I’m good. Need some sleep though.” There was a beat of silence. “Actually, guys, there’s something I want to say before we head off.” Kyle gives him a side glance and looks a bit concerned. He knows what’s coming next.

 

“Dan, mate, you sure about this?” It had always been Dan who had stopped them from saying anything about their relationship, insisting it would cause trouble with the management company.

 

“Yeah, Kyle.” He replies. “So, Kyle and me…we’re together.”

 

There was silence.

 

“Like, romantically together…” He clarifies.

 

More silence.

 

“Like…we’re in a relation-”

 

“Dan!” Woody interrupts. “We get it! We were just waiting for you to tell us something we didn’t already know!”

 

“What?!” Kyle and Dan say at the same time. “How long have you guys known?” Kyle adds.

 

“Since the start of the tour I think.” Says Will. “You guys are so not good at keeping secrets! Well not around us anyway.” He sniggers.

 

Dan automatically feels a weight being lifted off of his shoulders. “No one else knows do they?” He asks.

 

“Not that they’ve said to us. I assume you want to keep it that way for the moment?” Will asks.

 

“Yeah mate if that’s ok?” Dan says and then Kyle clues the others into what happened with Sharon that evening. They looked pretty much as pissed off as Kyle did by that point.

 

“Don’t worry Dan, we’ll protect you from the crazy Glenn Close wannabe. You got no bunnies at your parent’s house have you?” Woody asks, and that lightens the mood a bit as they drive home, discussing what would be scarier – Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction or Rebecca DeMornay in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. This had still not been decided as they arrived home at about half midnight. They all fall into the cabin and start getting ready for bed.

 

“I’ve just realised something,” Dan says to Kyle as the others head off for their own rooms.

 

“What’s that?” Kyle asks, intrigued.

 

“We don’t have to hide anything around the guys anymore…” he trails off. Kyle still fakes confusion. “You can sleep in my room tonight…” he adds, cocking an eyebrow.

 

“I assume you mean actual sleeping cos I don’t think you’re in any fit state for anything else right now!” Kyle smirks as he slides his arms around his boyfriend’s middle and guides him towards the biggest bedroom.

 

“Change, contacts out, get in bed. I’m heading to the loo.” Kyle says and leaves the room.

 

“So bossy!” Dan shouts after him.

 

“NO SEX NOISES!” Woody and Will shout in unison, and Dan bursts out laughing.

 

He has the best night sleep that night with Kyle draped around him. Despite all the things that had happened that night he feels protected from everything.

 

\---

 

They both wake up in the morning and neither one has moved.

 

“Hey,” Dan says first and his lips smirk as he sees his boyfriend’s moustache look a little less than perfect.

 

“Mornin’,” comes the reply and Kyle sits up to look around the room. “Are you sure I’m the younger one in this relationship?” Kyle asks.

 

“What do you mean?” Dan asks, feigning outrage.

 

“We are wrapped up in a Marvel Duvet Cover, Dan. As you so eloquently told me last night _‘I’m a grown ass 30-year-old man!_ ’ “

 

“Captain America is the dude! Anyway, I’m only passing the time until Chris Evans realises what he’s missing.”

 

“Who the ginger DJ? I think he’s single, you want me to put in a call??” and with that he gets a major clip round the back of the head and they both burst out laughing.

 

The laughing soon quietens down and Kyle leans over Dan and presses his lips to Dan’s. It starts out light and then it is as if they realise at the same time where they are, and Dan reaches to hold Kyle closer and starts to lift his pyjama top off. It’s thrown across the room and at the same time Dan removes his own and roaming hands from each man start mapping out the planes of the other’s chest. Both men are slim, and while neither have significant abs they both look after themselves and groans and moans start escaping from both as they realise the inevitable end of this encounter.

 

Kyle eventually takes things further and presses his hands into Dan’s boxers and cups both ass cheeks with his sizeable hands. He massages gently and then his long fingers start venturing further towards Dan’s crack searching for the hole they both know he will find. He seems to have found lube from somewhere, and suddenly, Dan feels the breach as Kyle’s long index finger slowly reaches in and slowly massages him from the inside. Dan gasps and breaks the kiss and starts kissing down the side of Kyle’s neck and shoulders, sucking marks along the way. He cups Kyle’s dick in one hand and his balls in the other and massages in rhythm with the fucking he is currently getting himself.

 

They are both significantly hard and wet by this point and neither believes they are able to last much longer. Kyle adds another finger and starts scissoring the older man open to prepare him for what was to come. Dan starts moaning louder as Kyle gently strokes past his prostate on every other stroke. His ministrations to the younger man start becoming more erratic, drawing delicious grunts from Kyle.

 

“Kyle, hurry up and fuck me already. It’s been three months!” Dan pleads from under him and Kyle pulls back quickly, reaches down to his bag next to the bed and pulls a condom from it and disposes of his boxers. Dan also throws his shorts across the room and flips himself onto his knees ready for the younger man to finish rolling the latex sleeve on his dick.

 

Kyle roughly grabs Dan’s hips and drags him backwards towards him, suddenly impatient to wait for what was to come. Dan feels a blunt head at his entrance and braces himself for the inevitable intrusion into his body. The burn only seems to last a minute and Kyle then sinks in slightly further until Dan is fully seated and Kyle’s balls are resting against his ass.

 

“Oh my god…” Kyle gasps, “You’re so tight and warm,” he adds. “Shit Dan, I think this might be quicker than we thought!”

 

“Move Kyle!” Dan gasps out and with that Kyle starts to thrust in and out of Dan with abandon. There is no slow working up to it and Kyle seems to have had the perfect angle from the start, striking the bundle of nerves in Dan on every plunge. Grunts and groans fill the room of the wooden building, getting more frequent the closer the two came to spilling over in triumph. Suddenly, Kyle starts stroking Dan’s dick in time with his thrusts and Dan can feel his balls tightening and the heat pooling in his stomach. He starts to come with a long moan and Kyle feels his muscles tightening around his own cock, riding him over the edge himself. Like everything else the two do it together, they both come in unison and collapse on to the bed.

 

It takes them a couple of minutes to relax their breathing and come back down to the space they had made it to before they look at each other properly.

 

“Wow,” Dan says first. “So that’s our first time together huh?”

 

“Looks like,” Kyle replies, grinning. “No going back now. Any regrets?”

 

Dan chuckles. “Absolutely none.” He replies and plants a chaste, loving kiss onto his lover’s temple.

 

\---

 

They both get up and ready quickly. After falling asleep in his contacts the previous night he was sticking with the glasses today, and he could not be bothered with hair, so a baseball cap was thrown on as well. Kyle sticks to jeans and a hoody and they went for a leisurely walk around Dan’s parents place. It was still early and everyone else was sleeping. Dan’s parents were away for the weekend anyway and with Ella still being out it was very quiet.

 

They wander past the field next to the property and they quickly say hello to the horses in there. Dan tells Kyle the large brown horse is called Harvey and Kyle side eyes this one saying he’s a bit too big for his taste. Then he notices a small white pony with light brown patches.

 

“That’s Puzzle,” Dan explains and points to the Shetland Pony.

 

“Now that is _cute_!” Says Kyle. “He would make an amazing reindeer. I’m coming back at Christmas with antlers and a red nose…” Dan laughs and pushes him forward and away from the poor animals before Kyle can turn them into anything else.

 

Returning back to the cabin Dan sees Woody wandering around the living room in his boxers and night t-shirt.

 

“Well isn’t this a sight to behold!” Kyle says.

 

“Hey, you know it’s only a matter of time Kyle baby!” jokes Woody heading to the fridge. “Need food, we have no food.” He says and pouts at the two others.

 

“McDonald’s?” Suggests Will from the corner of the room and they all murmur in agreement.

 

As Will and Woody get dressed, Dan’s phone rings from his bedroom. He heads towards it and sees the name of his manager on the screen.

 

“Hey Dave, what’s up?” he asks.

 

Kyle moves into the room with him and sits down on the bed. He hears some rapid talking from the other end of the phone and Dan starts looking more and more confused.

 

“What’s wrong?” he mouths and Dan shakes his head at him.

 

Then Dan is up on his feet and pacing, trying to get his words out. “No…but Dave…tha-…” He then sits down again, dejectedly and agrees finally. “OK. No that’s cool. I’ll figure something out with her in it.” He listens again for a minute. “See you next week then, bye.” And he hangs up.

 

“So, we have a problem,” he says and shuts the door on the others. Kyle raises his eyebrow at him. “Sharon managed to get hold of Dave this morning and spun a not too complimentary tale about what happened last night.”

 

“What do you mean?” Kyle looked suspicious.

 

“Well apparently you tried it on with her, she declined and then I tried to kiss her on the dancefloor and asked her to join us for a threesome in the English classroom.”

 

“You’re fucking _kidding_ me?! The little _bitch_!”

 

“Oh that’s not all Kyle. She has audio of us going at it and says that she’s gonna release it if we don’t help her with something.”

 

Open mouthed, Kyle looks like he’s going to explode. He’s been getting redder and redder throughout the entire conversation. “What?” he asks through gritted teeth.

 

“She wants to sing back up during the summer for festival season.” Dan says miserably. “And Dave has said yes.” Kyle looks like he’s going to interrupt and Dan carries on, “He was on a rampage Kyle. He was quoting contract clauses and everything and apparently he has the power to add any backing singers or instruments he wants as long as it doesn’t affect the overall sound of the band. It was one thing I said I could handle cos I never thought it would come up.”

 

“ _Shit,”_ curses Kyle. “I knew she was up to something. I just can’t believe it was this. She’ll ruin us if this gets out.”

 

“I know. That’s why I had to just agree. We’ll have to tell the guys.” Dan replies.

 

“Yeah, let’s get them some food first though…It might soften the blow slightly?”

 

“I don’t think anything will make this news better.” Sighs Dan and they go out to the rest of the band and head to town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!! x


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

 

Dan drives them to the nearest McDonalds at a nearby retail park. He uses his own car which he always leaves at his parent’s house because it means he doesn’t have to pay the congestion charge when he drives back to his flat in London.

 

He loves his car, but it is a bit tight with all four of them in it. It’s a black Audi A1 with all the mod cons including sat nav, adaptive cruise control and the Apple interface he can hook his phone up to - after kitting out his studio in London and putting up a temporary studio at his parents also, this was his next major purchase – but even driving this wasn’t making his mood any better. Kyle is in the front, obviously, Will and Woody are squashed into the back. It’s an awkward drive with mainly silence accompanying them. The guys in the back knew something was up, but decided to wait for the others to tell them.

 

They had sat down in a small corner of the drive thru with their food when Dan finally told them everything that had happened on the phone call, and then embarrassingly about the audio of the oral sex they had had the previous night. They talked for about an hour about the pros and cons of letting this happen, and they all decided that at the moment it would be best to give in to what she and Dave had decided this close to the gigs they had. The last thing any of them wanted was for the media to think half of the group were trying to groom school girls into having sex with them.

 

For the rest of the weekend, Kyle, Woody and Will hardly see Dan. He spends most of his time on his laptop in his parent’s studio trying to rearrange his music to suit a female voice and trying to organise set lists that sound better with the extra sound. He rings Charlie – who wasn’t able to join them because of a prior engagement – and tells him he has to come down and see them so that they can get him up to speed on the changes. Thankfully – or worryingly – Ella had stayed at Sharon’s all weekend so he hadn’t had to deal with any questions about what was happening, but he was beginning to worry about what Sharon had said to her about her new found fortune with singing. He hadn’t heard anything so he supposed he would hear when she got back from school on Monday.

 

Late on Sunday night he gets another call from Dave and it’s essentially a summons for Kyle and Dan to go to London to get their asses truly kicked and this is when he finally emerges from the outbuilding to talk to the other guys. He had been sleeping in the studio as well when he needed rest, so when Kyle saw him he rushed over to hold his partner. Dan felt his arms go round him and he just leaned into the embrace without returning it. Kyle pressed soft kisses to his head and murmured words of encouragement and love to him.

 

Dan pulled away after a couple of minutes. “We’ve got to be in the office for a meeting with Dave at 9am in the morning,” he said to Kyle. “We’ll pick Charlie up on the way back too.” He added.

 

“Are you winning?” Kyle asks. He knew that when Dan got into the zone with the music he shouldn’t really interrupt him which is why he gave him his space for the weekend. Dan may be insecure about so much, but the Music and the Band were the two things he was passionate about and he knew his shit. He really hoped that Sharon was gonna get a big shock when faced with Dan the music man compared to Dan the nervous guy she had seen on Friday.  

 

“Not really,” Dan answers. “I really need to hear her sing to see what things need changed and harmonies need adding. Hey at least I had kinda done Blame while we were away, so that’s one that can be struck of the list.” He says as they move towards the patio. The last of the spring light was starting to fade and someone had lit the fire pit at some point. “Where’s Will and Wood?”

 

“They got a taxi into the village and headed to the pub. We can join them if you want?” At that Dan just shakes his head. Kyle had sat down on the mesh garden furniture and Dan climbs into his lap, straddling his long legs.

 

“To be honest, right now I just want to make out with my boyfriend,” he says and that Dan smirk that Kyle loves so much is back.

 

“Really?” Kyle asks. “Well shall I just get out of your way then?” he jokes.

 

“Don’t you dare go anywhere,” Dan growls in a low tone and moves his face towards the bearded man and lays his mouth over his. He swipes at the seam of Kyle’s mouth and Kyle pliantly opens up to deepen the kiss. Dan starts to suck on his lower lip, the beard and moustache tickling his own face, almost teasingly, and then he moves his tongue into the waiting mouth to search every inch of it. They stay like this for about 5 minutes, until Dan gets frustrated and pulls back. Kyle whimpers at the loss of the older man and Dan just pulls him off the seat and towards the cabin.

 

“Clothes off. Now” Dan demands and Kyle eagerly moves into the building, shucking layers of clothes and shoes as he goes. Dan is doing the same as they move into the bedroom and then he is searching for lube and a condom and throwing them onto the bed. Once Kyle is suitably undressed, Dan kisses him fiercely and pushes him down to the king size bed. At once Kyle realises that Dan needs this. He needs this to relax, and to feel in control. He realises that for the past 36 hours, everything that Dan held dear has been held ransom and he now needs to control something. At that second, Kyle decides he wants to be that thing for this amazing man.

 

Dan crawls towards him slowly and carefully, pressing kisses to his ankles and thighs as he moves up. He pauses, bites and sucks at the point between his leg and his groin, and with that Kyle’s dick rises from half hard to fully hard. Dan then licks over the area to sooth it and then continues to do exactly the same to the other side. Kyle makes small noises from the back of his throat and his cock starts to twitch and throb.

 

“You like that huh?” Dan asks huskily. “You like me marking you up?”

 

Kyle can’t say anything at this point and simply nods in agreement as Dan starts working his way up his lower abdomen and chest. He pauses over Kyle’s nipples and sucks roughly until they harden nicely. Dan then rocks back quickly to admire his work, before continuing the trail up Kyle’s long body, eventually landing back at his lips. He kisses deeply again, thrusting his tongue into Kyle’s mouth as if simulating what he wanted Kyle to do to him, and then pulls off again.

 

“I’m gonna ride your dick,” Dan says, almost matter of factly. “I’m gonna ride you so hard you won’t even remember your own name,” he adds and Kyle just moans Dan’s name in ecstasy and reaches up to Dan’s ass. Dan reaches back for the lube from where he threw it, opened the lid with a click and slicks Kyle’s fingers up for him. The prep is hard and rough and Dan starts groaning Kyle’s name to make him move faster, grinding backwards on his fingers. Once Dan felt he was ready, he found the condom, rolled it down onto Kyle’s impressive girth and held it steady at the base. He lined himself up and slowly sank down onto Kyle, controlling the speed with which he did it. Kyle let out a long, low growl when it started, and the further Dan got onto him, the quicker his breaths became until he felt comfortable to move himself.

 

Kyle held onto Dan’s thighs for purchase, but let Dan dictate the pace. He started off slowly, just rising as excruciatingly slow to gauge how it felt, but he was then letting himself fall quickly back down fully onto Kyle which made the younger man howl with delight. Then the pace changed and Kyle could see the pre-come pooling at the tip of Dan’s length. He reached up and spread the salty liquid the full length and breadth of Dan’s cock and started pumping furiously, doing a twist at the head which he knew drove the dark haired man wild. Dan started bouncing with all of his might on Kyle and his breathing hitched almost imperceptibly, before his muscles was squeezing Kyle with all of their might and Dan was spilling over onto the hand and stomach of keyboard player. With that, Kyle started thrusting as much as he could and it only took three more thrusts before he was coming himself with a growl.

 

There is nothing but gasping breaths for a number of minutes, before Dan starts moving again to go and get himself cleaned up. Kyle watches him go feeling slightly hurt that Dan hadn’t stayed in bed with him for longer. After using a t-shirt to clean his stomach he gets up and follows Dan to the bathroom where he finds him just staring in the mirror. Kyle wraps his arms around him from behind to give him the support he needs and Dan just quietly says, “I’m so sorry.”

 

\---

 

Monday came and Dan and Kyle headed into London to meet with Dave. It was really just for their side of the tale, not that what they told him would change anything but at least they got to say what actually happened. And they had to finally come out to him that, yes, they were in fact together.

 

“Look guys, I don’t care if you’re fucking everyone on the tour bus and their grandmothers. I’ve told you before that you need to be seen as accessible and attainable. I want you to appeal to straight, gay, trans, bi, EVERYONE! BUT…” he adds, “I do not want a scandal on my hands where you’ve been alleged to have asked a teenage girl into your bed in her own high school!”

 

The rest of the meeting went along that same vein, and to be fair, both of them could see what Dave was trying to get at. But at the same time it was still blackmail, and Dan and Kyle could silently agree that they were only going to do this until they could come up with a way to get out of it.

 

They met up with Charlie at the park and ride where Dan had left his car and started packing his gear into the supermini.

 

“You do realise I have a lot of this stuff at home right?” Dan jokes, glad to see the man again.

 

“I’m not using second hand gear!” He replies cheekily and Dan looks taken aback and grasps at his chest in mock horror.

 

They climb into the car and Charlie wastes no time in asking _'what the hell was going on?'_ because clearly he had been getting messages from Will and Woody. They fill him in on the whole sordid affair, and at least he has the good graces to look surprised when he finds out about the relationship – something that Kyle was secretly happy with. At least they had fooled someone!

 

“So, the long and the short of it is we have to rearrange pretty much everything to make it work for this girl.” Dan finishes up.

 

“See this is why you don’t get to go on tour without me,” Charlie eventually says without a hint of sarcasm, and a text interrupts the music in the car.

 

_Dave – email the girl with the songs and lyrics. Start getting her up to speed._

And then an email address and a mobile number is read out.

 

There is a big sigh from the driver’s side and Dan just looks at Kyle. “There’s a file with all the lyrics in my drop box. Email it to her can you?” he says, and then all three lapse back into silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're interested and haven't seen it, Bastille have done an amazing take on Blame for James Corden's show in the USA. It is on YouTube, but can't seem to find the link!
> 
> Thanks for reading again and for the comments!!! x


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

 

The rest of Monday went by pretty quietly compared to everything that had happened that weekend. Dan’s parents returned from their weekend away, slightly surprised to now have 5 fully grown men staying in their garden, when they were only expecting Dan, but seemed to take it in their stride. They had always been pretty laid back and easy going so this wouldn’t phase them at all.

 

Ella came home in the evening full of it that Dan was an amazing brother to let her best friend sing with them over the summer, and she seemed to believe this was purely down to the older girl’s talent instead of anything else that could have happened, which helped a little bit. Sharon was clearly going to continue her little game whether they liked it or not. When a not so subtle hint was thrown his way that Ella should be allowed to sing as well, Dan burst out laughing uncontrollably. It was one thing to let someone who had apparently had some experience with singing encroach their little bubble, but Ella was completely tone deaf and there was nothing Dan could do to make that any better!

 

A text came in later that night to Dan’s phone and he looked at it and took a sharp breath in.

 

_I will come by after school tomorrow to start organising my part. Someone will have to pick me up from town. Sharon._

Dan spitefully doesn’t save her number in his phone. A small act of mutiny he knew but it made him feel a bit better.

 

“Wow, presumptuous much?” remarks Will after Dan reads it. “You gonna pick her up Dan?”

 

“Gonna have to aren’t I? Not going alone though and probably shouldn’t take Kyle, so fight between you who gets to come.” That then starts a quite brutal knockout game of rock, paper, scissors between the three others to find out who was going to have to deal with the girl with him. Kyle comes in to the room at that point and gravitates towards Dan who is sniggering to himself.

 

“Your parents OK? They looking after your babies?” Dan asks the man. He had been checking up on his precious cats since he was having to stay out in the country for longer than anticipated.

 

“Yup,” he replies, popping the ‘p’ on the word. He sat down on the sofa and cuddled in to his boyfriend and picked up the bottle of Heineken that he had left on the ground. “What they arguing about?”

 

“Oh, who gets the honour of accompanying me to pick up mistress crazy tomorrow afternoon.” Dan smirks at the nickname he had come up with. Suddenly a cry from the corner, two shouts of joy burst out and Charlie has been announced the loser.

 

\---

 

The sun is shining again the following day when Dan drives into town to pick up Sharon with Charlie. He decides not to pick her up from home, but from the high street so he can be as safe as possible from any future accusations from the girl. He sees her standing on a street corner, smirking to himself over the irony of that in itself.

 

The car comes to a halt and Sharon peers into the windows to see who is in the car. She sees Dan and that sly smile is back on her face again. She slips into the back of the car and settles in as if she owned it herself.

 

Dan eyes her in the rear view mirror. She is wearing light blue stonewashed skinny jeans with ankle boots and a white skinny fit t-shirt with some graphic on the front that Dan didn’t want to stare too long at. Her hair was up in a high ponytail and her face was covered in make up again. She looked almost normal like this.

 

“Sharon, Charlie. Charlie, Sharon.” Is all that Dan mutters as he sets off back to the house, turning his Spotify up as loud as it would go. Wanting something that went with his mood he had chosen the album Bounce by Bon Jovi to try and clear his head. While not really a hair rock fan he found this album helped to blast away cobwebs when he was pissed off. Charlie raised his eyebrows as he realised what was playing and just kept silent on the way back too.

 

They parked in the large driveway and the three of them got out of the car.

 

“Thank God that racket’s stopped,” Sharon says. “Why so loud?” She asks indignantly.

 

“Get used to it,” is all that Dan says in response and stalks off towards where he can see Kyle and the others waiting for him.

 

Will and Woody mutter greetings to the girl as they get closer, and Kyle just gives her a…look. There really are no words to describe it, thinks Dan. It is as if he wants to simultaneously rip her head off and skin her alive at the same time, whilst eating her brain. Dan smiles internally to himself at the thought as he sees her move towards Kyle and just shrug, whilst saying “no hard feelings Kyle. Just had to do what I had to do to get ahead,” and she sauntered into the open studio. Thankfully Dan got to him in time to stop him from lunging at her and causing more damage.

 

“Ignore her…please don’t do anything stupid,” he whispers quietly into his ear. “I need you in there Kyle, _please_.” He pleads for his boyfriend’s support.

 

They all then move into the studio space. Dan has his laptop still sitting out, sitting precariously onto his own keyboard; Woody is sitting behind his kit and Will and Charlie are standing together tuning their instruments. Kyle throws himself into a low futon stuck in the corner of the room for when Dan is too busy to leave and crosses both his arms ad his legs whilst glaring around him.

 

“Before we start anything, I need to hear you sing,” he says reluctantly to the girl.

 

She raises an eyebrow and the corners of her mouth rise at the corner. “What do you want?” She asks in her most seductive tone, and there’s a loud cough from the direction of the futon.

 

Dan ignores her and faces his keyboard. “Anything, Sharon. Just sing.”

 

She’s silent for a minute and then starts singing a bit from Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’. Dan rolls his eyes. He hates this song with a passion, but he has to admit she has a nice tone to her voice and it does seem to have power behind it. She misses some of the bigger notes but at least he is now slightly relieved that he has something to work with.

 

“Right, STOP!” He shouts loudly and there are some sniggers from behind him. “OK, now I’ve got an idea – “

 

“Well, before you go on Dan,” Sharon interrupts, “I thought I would give you my views on the songs you should do when you have me with you. I do know my own voice, you see. I can see where we can collaborate on some songs, and maybe I can do some of my own as well.”

 

The more she says, the lower Dan’s jaw starts to drop. He hears Woody drop his drum sticks behind him and then a loud expulsion of breath from Will and Charlie at the same time. Kyle slowly stands up and starts to leer towards her, and is only stopped by a sideways glance from Dan.

 

“Hey, hey, hey,” Dan finally says. “Sharon – you’re playing by my rules now! This is all MY decision, not yours.” She tries to interrupt him but he steamrollers over her, “you have blackmailed your way in here, upset all of us and we just have had to put up with it, but if _you_ think _I’m_ gonna let you anywhere near _my_ music other than sing a few ‘la’s’ in the background, you’re fucking mistaken!” He gets louder by the end of it, and can see that he has knocked some of the confidence off of the manipulator.

 

It doesn’t last long thought as she quickly recovers and simply says, “Whatever you say… _sir_ ,” and pouts at him in a way that no one can mistake the vibe she is putting out.

 

Having never seen this before, Charlie just mouths ‘WOW!’ at the others and is pretty happy he has to just stay at the back and not be involved. Will and Woody both nod emphatically and to try and ease the tension Woody calls Sharon over to show her the piece of kit they have to help her with her lyrics and timings.

 

Dan turns on his keyboard and plays a few chords. “Right, I need you to copy me…” and he starts to get into teaching her the basic backing harmonies that are used. A couple of hours later and he has given her the basics for Pompeii as that is the song they would definitely be performing at all of the gigs.

 

“So I really like this song,” Sharon says at the end. “It obviously has a deeper, hidden meaning though. Now I’m part of the band do I get to know what it is?” She flirtatiously asks.

 

“It’s about a volcano. We are literally singing about a volcano.” Dan replies deadpan. “Right,” he finishes up, feeling mentally exhausted. “Have you got an iPhone or iPad I can put this app onto so you can practice this at home?”

 

She scoffs at that, “Uh, no. You guys are the mega rich band here. Shouldn’t you provide me with that stuff?” As if she was asking for a pencil or a pen.

 

Dan’s patience starts to wear very thin by this point. “Well, I don’t have one just lying around. So, how about you take this CD,” he hands her a case, “and this sheet of lyrics,” he hands her stapled sheets of paper with the songs he wants her to know, with annotated notes on what key she should be in, “and go home and practice.”

 

“I take it you’re dropping me off. Its late and it’s probably not safe for a young girl like me to make my own way home.” She says and widens her eyes as if she is scared and puts another pout on.

 

“RIGHT!” Dan huffs, and picks up his car keys frantically and storms out of the building, Kyle following very close behind him. Sharon strolls out at a leisurely pace waving good bye to the rest of them.

 

As Dan gets to the car he is stopped by Kyle with a hand on his shoulder. He is so riled up that he doesn’t realise straight away that its Kyle until the younger man’s hands cup his face and bring his head forward for a tender kiss. He immediately melts into the kiss and opens his mouth to invite Kyle’s tongue in for more. It only lasts a moment and then the kiss is broken.

 

“Calm down. Don’t drive mad. One of the others can take her home.” He soothes the emotional man.

 

“If you think I’m letting any of them near my steering wheel…” he leaves the threat unfinished, and Kyle chuckles, the soft noise like music to Dan’s ears.

 

“I’ll go and see who’s gonna come with you alright? Can you handle her for a couple of minutes?” Kyle asks. Dan just shrugs and nods and watches him jog back to the studio for a volunteer.

 

From the shadows, Sharon comes out and brushes a hand over Dan’s shoulder and down to his hand as if to hold it. Dan shrugs her away quickly. She scowls, “haven’t you learned by now Daniel? I always get what I want…” she whispers into his ear. He shudders and moves to the boot of the car as he sees Charlie coming towards them.

 

“Hey man, we ready?” He asks the pair as he gets closer to the car. Dan remotely unlocks the car and Charlie holds the back door open for the young woman. As he closes it behind her there’s a look of intrigue on his face which Dan catches out of the corner of his eye.

 

Both guys get in the car and Dan pulls out towards Sharon’s house.

 

“So, I’m assuming you will be joining my birthday bash this weekend Daniel? I mean it is my 18th and you wouldn’t want me to be upset would you?”

 

“I really think I might be busy this weekend…doing…something else.” Dan replies through gritted teeth.

 

“Oh come now,” she continues, “you wouldn’t want to leave your newest band member alone on her birthday. Who knows what might happen.”

 

“It could be fun Dan you know. It won’t hurt anyone for one drink.” Charlie pipes up, and Dan gives him a shocked look when he sees that Charlie is being deadly serious.

 

“Excellent! Ella has the details; I’ll make sure you know them!” She says as they pull up to the kerb to let her out. Both men watch her go. Dan watches to make sure she doesn’t come back, but Charlie still has that strange look on his face.

 

“What the hell was that?!” He shouts as they drive away.

 

“What? A couple of drinks might be good. Smooth everything over. Maybe if we make nice she’ll start being different.” Still in shock, they both sit in silence for the journey back.

 

Dan knew Charlie had a thing for unconventional women, but even he was starting to worry now. He would definitely have to watch out and make sure nothing bad happened to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, if you're still with me hope you;re still enjoying it. Please let me know.
> 
> I have no idea if the app talked about for lyrics and music exists in real life, so if it does yippee, if not sorry!
> 
> If you checkout the Levi sessions on youtube it shows Dan explaining that Pompeii is literally about a volcano and has no deeper meaning. Makes me chuckle everytime!
> 
> Thanks again x


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight warning for one bit of homophobia, sorry : (
> 
> Please enjoy.

Chapter 10

 

The remainder of the week carries on in a similar fashion. Dan is let off shuttling duty for most of it with Sharon either coming home from school with Ella, or her father bringing her over. Dan was very glad he didn’t have to be around her longer than necessary and Kyle was keeping up with guard dog duties.

 

Dan’s original plan was for her to get the basics of two songs a week so they then had plenty of time to perfect them before the first gig in the beginning of July, but sods law had it that things were just not going to go to plan. Pompeii was becoming a big problem by Thursday evening – and unfortunately it would have to be the song that needed perfected as soon as possible.

 

The main problem was she kept singing Dan’s lines. In the backing key. It finally happens for the third time that day when he bursts.

 

“Stop it! Stop it, please, I’m begging you, shut up!!!”

 

The worst thing about it was, she didn’t even look sorry. She looks kind of proud to get a reaction from him. Which in turn then angers Kyle. Woody – being the person who seems to see more than he lets on – just gently coaxes the girl outside, followed by Will and Charlie to try and let the two to calm down.

 

Dan slumps down in the chair that had been set up at his keyboard and lets his head fall on the keys making an awful sharp/flat hybrid noise.

 

“Hey you! I’m pissed off, but don’t take it out on the instruments!” Kyle suddenly jokes, the noise seeming to have snapped him out of his anger and he then protectively strokes the piece of kit. He gets his partner to budge up on the seat and elbows him in the side to get him to sit up. Then he puts his right hand on the upper scale of the keys and starts playing the tune to ‘heart and soul’, which has the desired effect and gets a small smirk from the corner of the singer’s mouth.

 

“Seriously?” Dan asks. “We’re going with primary school songs?”

 

“Well if we’re having to really go back to basics I could do chopsticks?” and he leans over and presses a sweet kiss to his lips.

 

The door cracks open making a squeaking noise and long shaggy hair peeps round the corner. “I don’t see any mess. Kyle, did Dan explode and you hoovered already?” he asks mockingly and Dan childishly sticks his tongue out at him.

 

“Come back in.” He says. “Will, stand next to Sharon and poke her in the ribs when she’s meant to sing and when she’s meant to stop.” And with that Sharon just curls her lip and sarcastically laughs.

 

Surprisingly, after that little display she never sings Dan’s lines again. He has no idea what changes, but they have what appears to be a song by the end of the Friday.

 

\---

 

Saturday was a rest day for everyone. Well, in saying that Charlie had roped them all into going to the pub in town for Sharon’s birthday and he was the only one who seemed to be looking forward to that. He had been up early that morning showering and getting ready and asking Dan for tips on where to get his hair done.

 

“Mate, It’s an 18th birthday party. Why are you so excited about this?” Dan asks, holding a bowel of Nesquik cereal up to his mouth as he spoons the chocolate boulders in. It’s only 10:30 in the morning and he’s still in boxers and a t-shirt leaning against the kitchen island.

 

“Cos I want to get out a bit! Why aren’t you excited? Surely it must be nice to be asked to an adult party once in your life, little Danny?” He asks sarcastically, eyeing up the kid’s cereal he’s devouring.

 

“Shut up…it’s all we have. And its high in calcium…its technically good for me!”

And Charlie gives him a raised eyebrow and good natured quirk of the lip at that.

 

“Of course it is baby!” Kyle comes in and condescendingly pats his head and tucks him under his arm for comfort. Without Dan seeing he then shakes his head at Charlie as if to say ‘oh my god!’ and Charlie laughs and walks away.

 

“So you look happy,” Kyle says and gives him an appraising look. “You thinking about joining me, Will and Charlie’s little club?” he adds and scratches Dan’s cheek and chin where he had let some scruff start to grow.

 

Dan side eyes him and just shakes his head. “Nah, just want to look a little different for tonight is all.”

 

“Did you know if you type ‘Charlie Barnes’ into Google it comes up with pictures of Kyle?” Will asks as he walks into the room with them.

 

“Will, does Charlie know you’re secretly stalking him on the internet?” Woody asks as he joins them. “Are we going to have to have _that talk_ again??” and all of them start to laugh.

 

They spend the rest of their day lazing around the cabin. Dan and Kyle sit on YouTube watching cute cat videos while Kyle pines over his two in London. They give each other lazy hand jobs when the others are out and they spend a number of hours just wrapped in each other’s arms. When they eventually surface to cheers from the rest of the band, they give low bows and are fully ready to face the evening. They had also made the decision to tell Dan’s parents the next day about the relationship seeing as more and more people were finding out.

 

They grab a taxi into town to the pub where the party was being held. Everyone was pretty smart in jeans and button up shirts. Dan had put on some grey skinny jeans and grey military style boots. He was wearing a white Henley and a leather jacket. He still had his glasses on and hadn’t shaved. He hoped he looked different enough to not be recognised by anyone.

 

Will and Woody had gotten her a bottle of wine and a card signed from them all out of politeness rather than anything else, and Will was carrying it into the small building. It was a relatively new bar in town. It was trying to be a combination of posh wine bar and country pub and Dan wasn’t too sure it was working, but it was pretty busy. They were shown through to a small function room at the back of the building where there was a dance floor and music blaring. They found a table tucked away at the back and all grabbed a seat.

 

Woody disappeared quickly and came back with a tray full of shots and Dan knew at that point it was going to be a bad night. They counted to three and all downed their glass and then went on to beers to continue drinking.

 

Ella spotted them at one point and migrates over to see them. “What the hell do you look like?” She glares at Dan when she sees him. “Couldn’t you at least have made an effort?”

 

He shrugs at her and just keeps drinking. He really wasn’t in the right mind set for this at that moment in time. After Ella, Sharon then appears in front of the table. Will hands the card and wine over to them and she just takes them with a wry smile and snort. A slightly older woman appears right behind her at that moment. She looked to be in her early 40’s, had the same shade of blond hair that Sharon had and the same sharp blue eyes that made Dan so suspicious. He guessed – and correctly – that this must be Sharon’s mother.

 

“Mum,” she says, “this is the band I am going to tour with.” She seems very proud when she says it and also smirks at Dan.

 

“Oh yes,” her mother says. “Charmed, I’m sure.” And she holds out her hand in a very limp way expecting each man to shake it. “I’m not surprised that you asked Sharon to go with you. I mean she is excellent at singing and I hope she will be taking a starring role in whatever you perform.” She finishes what she is saying and before anyone can butt in to correct her, she’s swanning off to go and meet other people.

 

“Wow,” Kyle manages to get out. “So your mum doesn’t know what you did either?” It’s actually the first time he has directly spoken to Sharon all week and Dan is quite proud of him.

 

“Well, considering my mother’s social status, you really wouldn’t want her knowing what you had asked me in that disco, _Kyle_.” She snipes and storms off.

 

“God, I am so out of here!” Kyle says forcefully, but Charlie shoves a hand on his shoulder and pushes him back in the chair.

 

“Come on mate. Stay for a couple eh? We haven’t let our hair down for ages.” Kyle throws a look over to Dan who’s just staring into space and drinking his pint. He reluctantly settles back down.

 

After a number of minutes have passed and they’re all sitting talking about football scores and upcoming Eurovision – of all things – Kyle suddenly feels a foot sliding slowly up his lower leg. He’s sitting opposite Dan and he glances up to look at him, but Dan is engrossed in a discussion with Will and Charlie about how the UK can ever win Eurovision again and is completely ignoring the keyboard player. He goes back to his discussion with Woody, and suddenly feels the foot rise higher up towards his thigh. He can feel that there is no shoe on this foot now as it inches slowly towards his groin. Kyle is certain at this point that it’s Dan without even looking down because he can see the familiar glint in his eyes and small corner smile on his lips when he thinks Kyle isn’t looking at him.

 

The foot then glides over his cock and Kyle stifles a little gasp which tries to escape the back of his throat. He can feel his length harden quickly in his trousers as the foot continues to stroke quite deftly at the head of his dick. Its slow and insistent and he can feel that his hardness is slowly getting wetter and wetter as the stroking continues. Suddenly an announcement is made asking for Chris Wood to take the stage as the karaoke is starting and his name is first up. The foot abruptly stops and Kyle actually whines as it pulls away from him.

 

“Woody? Karaoke??” Dan splutters.

 

“What? I saw it when I got the drinks! It’ll be fun!”

 

“Whatever dude. I ain’t singing if I don’t have to,” Kyle says, and gets a roll of the eyes from the drummer. Woody then inches out from the seat between Kyle and Dan and heads towards the stage. Without anything between them then Kyle moves into the empty seat and raises an eyebrow to the older man.

 

“What?” Dan asks innocently.

 

“Nothing,” is the reply and they both settle to watch Woody murder ‘We Built This City’ on the karaoke.

 

“Thank god we don’t keep him around for his singing skills,” Dan murmurs to no one, but they all agree wide eyed and shocked as the caterwauling continues. Woody gets back to the table and the other four just burst out into fits of laughter and can’t stop as Woody looks at them with a huge grin and twinkle in his eye and they all realise it’s a ploy to make the evening as uncomfortable as possible.

 

A number of other kids the go up to try out their singing skills and there’s one really uncomfortable moment when the opening to Good Grief starts and Dan starts burning a bright red until it’s over.

 

Charlie’s then called up and he does a pretty good job with Bad Day by Daniel Powter. Dan and Kyle are quite relaxed now and certain no one can see them, Dan then places a light hand at the top of Kyle’s thigh. Immediately, Kyle’s dick throbs with what it had remembered from earlier that evening and the promise it had been left with. He ghosts his hand over the waiting cock and raises an eyebrow. His hand squeezes Kyle and he groans ever so slightly. He is minutely thrusting his hips forward into Dan’s hands. No one would notice if they glanced over, but Dan could feel it happening, and it made him stroke harder and with more vigour. He moves his hand to cup Kyle’s balls and then rub them in a circular fashion to give more friction to the younger man. He alternates between the cock and balls rapidly and fingers where he just knows the head of Kyle’s dick is begging for him. Kyle’s legs start shaking uncontrollably and Dan knows he’s close. He looks at his face out of the corner of his eye and he’s biting down forcefully on his lower lip and his eyes are clenched tight. Finally, his legs start to still and he makes a silent moan only Dan can hear and Dan knows his little plan has been a success.

 

Kyle visibly relaxes almost immediately but has to stand and excuse himself from the table. Dan sniggers as he leaves and Kyle shoots him a death glare. He then knows that he’s going to have to watch out for retaliation, but deep down he can’t wait for the excitement to begin.

 

\---

 

Kyle edges towards the toilet to clean up, silently cursing his boyfriend for causing this problem, but trying to figure out what he can do to get him back. He moves behind a pillar where there is unfortunately a long queue for the men’s toilets and he sighs.

 

“So those are the boys you recorded at school?” Kyle hears from the other side of the pillar. “Yeah,” comes the reply and Kyle knows at that point its Sharon. “It’s disgusting what they do together, but it got me what I want.”

 

“Well, I would still try and go for one of them.” The other voice says – her mother maybe? “You don’t know when one of them might come in handy – “and at that moment Kyle is tapped on the back and asked to move forward with the queue. He doesn’t hear what else comes net and by the time he looks around they’ve both vanished.

 

\---

 

Sharon returns to the table after Kyle leaves and slots herself next to Dan. She looks him up and down and mutters something about him looking like a tramp. Dan can’t help but smile at that, but his attention is caught by the thing she is holding.

 

“Who gave you that?” He asks her and points to the brand new iPad mini she’s tapping away on.

 

“Oh this?” She says, acting surprised. “Oh this was a present from Charlie!” and she beams at the tour member and he actually blushes at her.

 

At that moment he realises that Charlie definitely had a thing for this girl. And that that could very well end up in big trouble for everyone involved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Please let me know! x


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Sorry went a bit AWOL at the weekend there. Had time away to another fandom and had a birthday but i'm back now!!
> 
> Warning for slight dub-con in this one, but everyone enjoys themselves. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy and as always please let me know! x

Chapter Eleven

 

Kyle returned to the table and Dan could immediately see that his playful demeanour had vanished somewhere between heading to the toilet and coming back again. He raised a questioning eyebrow at him and Kyle just shook his head and started playing on his iPhone – probably tweeting. Dan continued to watch him from the corner of his eye for the next hour or so until more shots started coming to the table courtesy of Woody. This was the point Kyle looked up from what he was doing and started paying attention to the alcohol.

 

This time it was Jagerbombs – deadly in anyone’s mind, but always particularly lethal when it came to the bearded keyboard player. He downed his drink in one and started to stand, unbalanced for the most part. He sauntered over to the corner where Dan was and shoved his hand out towards him. Dan took it and he was hoisted to his feet and pulled towards where the bathrooms were located.

 

“What’s going on Ky?” Dan asks, worry clearly obvious in his voice. Kyle ignored him and purposefully strolled forward. It reminded Dan of the previous weekend and he started feeling his arousal growing in his skinny jeans.

 

The door to the bathroom burst open and this time there was no queue. Kyle pushed all the doors to the stalls open to make sure they were alone and then shoved Dan into the stall furthest away from the entrance. Dan stumbled forwards and ended up with his legs straddling the toilet pan and his hands and the tank behind. He felt the large heat surround him from behind and then a large, long fingered hand crowded his face and was placed over his mouth. There was a sudden soft breath at his ear and he felt the tickling sensation of soft facial hair on his lobe.

 

“This is for earlier,” came a low growl from that mouth. “No noise. Any noise and you’ll be _very_ sorry.” Dan had never been more scared or turned on in his life. He and Kyle had never discussed this kind of kink, but his body was extremely happy that Kyle had gone there for him tonight.

 

Suddenly the other strong hand was reaching to the front of his jeans, unbuttoning and unzipping them and yanking them to his thighs to release his waiting cock and round backside. Dan heard no similar sound from behind him and was beginning to wonder what his boyfriend had in mind. A swift and sharp smacking noise occurred and Dan could feel the flush of blood and heat running to his bottom from where Kyle had smacked him. His cock reacted in kind. Fully hard and brushing his lower abdomen waiting for more from the other man. He also released a small involuntary groan from the back of his throat, and this led to the other man leaning forward and softly say “nuh-uh-uh” into his ear.

 

Kyle’s hand then went back to smooth over the skin he had briefly abused and sooth the area with a gentle touch. Then both hands disappeared from Dan and he briefly wondered what might happen next. Then he felt Kyle pull his checks apart ad use one thumb to smooth over the small hole that was revealed. As if from nowhere, a wet tongue suddenly started running over the hole as well and Dan couldn’t help it then, a gasp came from him because of the surprise of it. The tongue slowly started pressing inward, making the small pucker as wet as it possibly could. Dan could feel the heat from the muscle breach the outer ring and start to probe at the internal muscle it found. Then as quickly as it had appeared, the sensation was gone and all he heard was Kyle spitting as hard as he could and then long strong fingers massaging the liquid into the hole. Dan tried to move further towards the digits, but one hand had him held firmly in place where he stood and he was unable to get any much needed friction from the younger man. The long index finger then was pushed all the way into him as far as it could go and started massaging the internal muscle again. It was torturously slow at this point, and Dan was really beginning to suffer when Kyle sensed this and inserted a second finger in to join the party. He quickly pumped them in and out as fast as he could, getting heat and friction involved as much as he could. When this happened Dan started thrusting forward to get friction on his forgotten dick as well.

 

“Don’t you dare,” came the low voice from behind. “You will come on my fingers alone.” And the silence returned.

 

Two fingers pumped in and out for a couple of minutes and Dan was having real trouble staying still and silent and then there was a noise of a door opening and two men talking to each other. Dan stilled when this happened and hoped that Kyle would do the same, but it appeared that Kyle relished the opportunity to torture the man even more and took that moment to crook his fingers just so, so that they then hit Dan’s needy bundle of nerves and sending shockwaves throughout his body. Dan’s feet shuffled and he bit hard down into his own lower lip to stop from making any noise and keep them from being found out. Kyle didn’t seem to be impressed though and started hitting his prostate on every thrust of his fingers. Dan’s breath started hitching shallower and shallower as the voices continued with what they were doing and eventually left the room.

 

“Good boy,” growled Kyle from behind him. He then left his fingers inside him and started stroking Dan as quickly as he possibly could. Dan could feel the familiar heat pool in his and the constricting of his balls, and it appeared Kyle could sense this too. “It’s OK babe. Come for me Dan.” This was all Dan apparently needed and he was spilling ribbons upon ribbons of silky white come all over his stomach and the pan in front of him.

 

Kyle held him through his orgasm and once he was sure Dan was finished withdrew his hand from him. Dan whimpered at the loss and Kyle just chuckled. He leant forward and placed a tender kiss on the other man’s head and simply said, “paybacks a bitch.” Dan could hear the smile in his voice. Kyle slipped out of the stall and left Dan to clean himself up.

 

A couple more minutes passed and Dan then opened the stall door to leave. He was a bit surprised to see Kyle leaning against the sinks waiting for him. Dan walked over to the sink and washed his hands and while he was doing that Kyle turned around and told him what he had overheard earlier in the evening.

 

“I think her mum’s got her pimping herself out for fame and money.” Kyle finishes up. “I was googling her mum and she seems to be in the spotlight a lot at those yuppy socialite things in London.”

 

“Yeah, I was thinking something like that was happening.” Dan replied. “I think she’s got her sights on Charlie. He gave her an iPad for her birthday.” And with that Kyle just raised his eyebrows and gave a low whistle.

 

“Let’s keep an eye out on them both. I still can’t see a way out yet though.” And with that they both leave the men’s room and head back to the others.

 

\---

 

The next day they all wake up pretty hungover. Will, Woody and Charlie head to the station as they all wanted to head into the city to check up on family and houses for a couple of days as they hadn’t had time to for a while, which left Dan and Kyle in the country alone. Kyle was going to head back into London that evening to see his family, but he had promised Dan the previous day that they would sit down and tell the family Smith about their relationship.

 

They had slowly woken up and each drunk a litre of water with paracetamol to help the pounding in their heads. Dan finally took the opportunity to shave and washed his hair so when both of them finally headed towards the larger house he looked a lot younger than his years with fluffy hair, glasses and a clean shaven face.

 

They let themselves into the house and find Dan’s parents in the kitchen making Sunday lunch and talking between themselves. It always surprised Kyle when he saw them that they still had such strong South African accents considering they had been over here since before Dan had been born. When they noticed their first born enter the house with his friend they both stop what they’re doing and shout greetings to the boys.

 

After the formalities had taken place, Dan slowly asks; “So…mum, dad, can we all sit down and have a chat?”

 

 They all move into the dining room and each take a seat around the table. Kyle looks down at the dark wood they’re sitting at and starts playing with a knot in the wood with his thumbnail.

 

“Everything alright Daniel?” His mum asks, clearly worried about whatever it was he was about to say.

 

Dan looks up, slightly startled and nods. “Yeah.” He says and there’s another moment of uncomfortable silence.

 

“C’mon kid,” his Dad says kindly, “spit it out.”

 

“So…” he says again without really looking at anyone. “I’m sure it’s not a huge shock for you to know that I’m not totally straight…” he starts. His dad just chuckles at that. His dad was the one who had always wondered and joked about his not entirely macho obsession with David Boreanaz when he was a kid – no matter how much Dan insisted he watched it for the hot girls.

 

“Me and Kyle have started seeing each other romantically…and I just wanted you guys to know before anything else might or might not be said about us.” He rushes out as quickly as he can. He steals himself for a minute and then looks up into his parent’s faces.

 

He wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when he looked at them. He knew they wouldn’t be horrified. They loved him and had lived with him for a large proportion of his life so if they hadn’t seen this coming it would have been a shock. But he wasn’t ready for what he did see.

 

His mother was staring at him with tears in her eyes and one of the proudest looks on her face he had ever seen. Her dark eyes just shone with love towards him. His dad just chuckled again and shook his head.

 

“Is that all?” His dad said and Dan looked at him with a shocked expression. “Dan, we’re just so happy that you both got your heads out of your asses and saw what everyone else could see!” And with that his dad walked over to him and gave him one of his signature bear hugs. Dan’s dad was a beast of a man and when he hugged, you felt like your ribs were going to explode. His mum quickly followed and tapped Mr Smith on the shoulder to get him to move onto Kyle and she just pulled Dan into a motherly smother.

 

“Are you happy?” She quietly asks in his ear.

 

Dan nods, choking up himself, and with that she just says, “that’s all we want.” And she moves onto save Kyle from asphyxiation.

 

After this the older couple insist they have to stay for lunch and they have a nice family lunch, just the four of them – Ella being out still at Sharon’s house. Neither of the boys find it awkward despite what had just happened and when it came time for Kyle to leave Dan was feeling very emotional.

 

Dan drove Kyle to the station so he could get his train and they just held hands the entire way there. There was no talking and there was just soft music playing in the background. Dan parked in the drop off point instead of properly parking and let Kyle out. Dan himself got out of the car ad moved over to the younger man. He pushed him up towards the black car and placed both hands to his face. He moved in slowly and lay his lips over the beautiful plump lips of his lover. The kiss was slow and tender and seemed to confer everything both of them were feeling at that time. They were only going to be apart for a few days, but it was the longest period of time for so long that they weren’t too sure how to handle it.

 

“Don’t spend any time with that girl alone.” Kyle warns the singer.

 

“I won’t, don’t worry.” And with that Kyle’s train arrives and he has to rush off to get it. As he runs he realises that the acceptance he had got at the Smith’s that day was starting to trigger an idea in his brain and hopefully that idea would start to get bigger soon.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again! Trying to get a good amount of this done before heading back to work!
> 
> I stress again I have no idea if this app idea exists, but if it doesn't i call copyright and want all royalties!!
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy. x

Chapter Twelve

 

It was safe to say that Dan hadn’t had such a bad night’s sleep in three months because Kyle wasn’t either in bed or in his immediate vicinity. He was awake on the hour, every hour until about 4am when he just eventually gave in and pulled his Mac onto his lap to play with some melodies he had in his head.

 

He wasn’t looking forward to the next couple of days. Exam leave had started for the kids and both Ella and Sharon now had no school during the day apart from their exams. Sharon had proudly told them she was only sitting A-Level music so she was going to be spending most of her free time rehearsing. Since Dan was the only one left for a couple of days at least, he was left to deal with her on his own. Ella had no exams for the first week so she was babysitting with Dan so he always had a witness.

 

Dan let out a long deep sigh and threw himself back onto the bed. He glanced quickly at the time on his watch and noticed that a number of hours had passed and it was now a sociable hour to be awake and moving.

 

His phone vibrated next to him and he picked it up and noticed a photo message waiting for him. He opened it up and smiled to himself when he saw it was Kyle. He clicked the photo to look at it more clearly and the idiot had taken a selfie of himself lying in his bed with his arm out to the side and he was giving large brown puppy dog eyes to the camera. He had clearly been sleeping, his hair was crazy and he had marks down one side of his face. The caption said _‘when you wake up and realise part of you is missing’_ and had a crying face next to it. His heart hurt when he read that. He gave himself a small sad smile.

 

_Dan – when did you become such a sap?_

_Kyle – when my best friend cornered me on tour and kissed me senseless_

Dan liked that memory. He had finally gotten sick of the minor touches and flirting and had pretty much had an entire bottle of Morgans for courage before he did it, but it didn’t make the memory any less powerful.

 

_Dan – gotta go. Breakfast for strength to get me through the day!_

_Kyle – miss you. Don’t kill anyone. I can’t help you hide the body from here._

Dan sent a couple of cute emojis back to him and threw on his joggers and t-shirt. He walked over to the big house for a proper breakfast that he knew his mum would have made him.

 

He relaxed into one of the dining chairs and started buttering toast when his mum and dad walked in. They were talking about an up and coming trip back to South Africa at the beginning of the summer holidays.

 

“You taking Ella this time?” Dan interrupts. Ella had only been once before when she was a baby and complained bitterly every time she was excluded from the trips out there. He already knew the answer. It would be a gift for her 16th, just like he had had when he went out there.  

 

“Shhh, don’t say anything Daniel.” His mum pleads. Dan rolls his eyes at that and goes back to demolishing the toast in front of him.

 

Ella stumbles through the door at that moment. Her dark hair wild and like a haystack on her head and she was wearing a hugely oversized t-shirt on top of shorts that she had obviously slept in. Closely following was another person and Dan drops his toast when he sees her. Walking through the door as if she had just walked off the cover of a teen magazine was Sharon. She was wearing a very tight belly top showing off a bellybutton stud and she had on skinny jeans ripped at strategic places on the thighs. Dan just banged his head off of the table in frustration. He had no space from this girl anymore!

 

“Morning Daniel,” she says as she sees him. “What have we got planned for today?” She asks seductively.

 

Dan’s head just remains on the table and he shakes it from side to side. He mumbles something about needing some time to change and then he stands up to leave. Before getting out of the door he shouts back to Ella to be ready in an hour and heads back to the cabin.

 

\---

 

It didn’t take Dan an hour to get ready, but he wanted to spend some time in his own space before letting the other girls in with him. He set up his laptop and his keyboards and started running through simple scales and vocal exercises so at least he would be ready for anything. He was seriously going to miss having the calming influence of Kyle and the others around him for today at least. He gave himself a pep talk and started practising breathing exercises to calm himself down.

 

Ella and Sharon came in almost exactly on the hour, and Dan realised it must have been the older girl keeping them on track, because Ella had ever been on time in her life. Dan noticed she was carrying her new iPad with her and he asked to see it so he could put the app on it for her – it was specially created app for singers that held all the lyrics and music for the songs of the bands that had signed up for it. It prompted for entrances for backing singers and everything so at least if she had that she wouldn’t be able to say she had problems knowing when she was to sing any more.

 

She hands it over and he asks for her passcode. “140786”. His birthday. Of course it was. He sighs and loads the app onto it. He selects the only songs that she’ll need to know. He doesn’t want her practising anything else and causing problems during the live shows.

 

“Right, we’re doing two this week. Keep practising Pompeii though, cos you will need to know that one yeah?” She nods slowly and keeps her eyes directly on his until he became very uncomfortable. He looks around to make sure Ella was still there and he saw her looking around herself too. She had never really been interested in this building, but her eyes were now lighting up everywhere she looked.

 

“Ella…don’t touch anything!” Dan warns. She scoffs and heads back over to Sharon and crowds over her shoulder to see her iPad. He sighs again. It was going to be a very long day.

 

“Right, Blame and Way Beyond…” and he starts to play the chords that were used in the two songs.

 

Much to Dan’s surprise, the day actually goes well. Sharon soon knuckles down and concentrates as much as she can and having Ella there did help things. She seemed to play on Sharon’s more childish side and it stopped her being overly flirtatious with the singer. By the end of the day everyone seemed quite relaxed and the two girls were talking about heading to the movies that night and what they could see. Dan was ignoring the majority of what was said as he tidied up around them and put things back in the correct places.

 

“…Dan?” He heard Ella ask.

 

“Huh?” he eloquently replied, still lost in his own head and Ella giggles.

 

“Can you take us to the movies tonight? You can come in too and bring us home. It’s not like you’re doing anything else.”

 

He considered this for a moment. He really didn’t want to spend time with the elder teen, but he did like spending time with his sister and with Kyle being away it would be an excellent time to do that. And that day had gone so smoothly he didn’t think that anything else untoward would happen.

 

“Yeah alright.” He agrees. “Hang on, what we going to see?” He adds suspiciously.

 

“Horror,” is all Ella has to say and Dan is definitely in.

 

\---

 

He doesn’t change. He sees no need to. He’s gonna sit in the dark and stare at a huge screen. Glasses are always better than contacts and no-one’s going to see his hair, so he is waiting first for the girls at the car when it’s time for them to head off. The doors open and they both get in dolled up to the nines.

 

“Guys, who’s even going to see you in there?” He asks in all seriousness.

 

“And that’s why you don’t have a girlfriend Dan,” Ella replies snarkily and he realises that his parents have kept to their word not to tell his sister about his relationship with Kyle. And…it hits him…that Sharon has obviously not said anything either.

 

He has to stop at a cash machine for the girls and for a second he is left alone with Sharon. In that second she leans forward to his seat. He feels slightly worried when this happens.

 

“So…alone at the moment then?” She whispers in his ear.

 

“Just a couple of days. Kyle has things to do.” He replies. Shaking obvious in his voice. Ella gets back in then and Sharon relaxes back into her seat in the back.

 

He relaxes a bit and heads off towards the Odeon. Tickets and snacks bought they head into the screen and Dan heads up to the area of the room he prefers – behind the wall that is above the entrance to the screen, so there is no one in front of him and he doesn’t annoy anyone when he inevitably fidgets his lanky legs when he has to sit for too long. He sets his crazy coffee filled Frappuccino in the holder next to him.

 

Then he realises that Sharon has sat between him and Ella.

 

He has a silent conversation with himself at that moment. If he made a fuss about it Ella would get suspicious, Sharon would act up and the shit could hit the fan. He decides to leave it and be hyper aware of everything that happened. He notices Sharon texting someone and he slyly looks over her shoulder to see what she was writing.

 

_Charlie – hi babe, missing you xxx_

_Sharon – missing you too!!!!! Why do you have to be away today? In movies with Ella and want you here in the dark with me : ( xxx_

Well…that’s a development, Dan thinks to himself. He does relax at the thought though. Maybe if she’s with Charlie that’s the reason today went so well. Maybe she’s just naturally flirtatious. The lights go down and he relaxes into the ads and trailers that he always enjoys before the movie. He and Ella have a quick popcorn fight between them while Sharon continues to text Charlie. Then the movie begins and they’re all silent and engrossed in the film.

 

After about 40 minutes when the main female protagonist is trying to hide from the killer and the big busted blond has been spectacularly killed, Dan feels a weight on his thigh. He doesn’t pay much attention to it and just shakes his leg and moves slightly so his leg is resting up on the wall in front of him. After a couple more minutes the weight is back again. It’s a bit heavier this time and the starts tracing circles on his thigh. He looks down and sees Sharon’s well-manicured fingers on his leg. He sighs, reaches down, picks up the hand and moves it back onto her own arm rest. She looks up at him and smiles. He just raises his eyebrows and shakes his head no.

 

There are no more incidents like that and Dan puts it down to a lapse in judgement on her behalf, or her missing Charlie. The evening finishes well and it turns out Sharon is staying with Ella again.

 

He heads to bed that evening absolutely shattered. He checks his messages and texts Kyle goodnight. He gets a photo back of Kyle hugging one of his cats – who doesn’t look too impressed – and captioned _‘just have to do with this instead : ('_

 

Dan chuckles to himself and settles down into the pillow. He falls asleep thinking of his boy and how he would be seeing him in another day or so.

 

\---

 

The next morning he’s woken up by vibrations next to his head at 8:30. He picks up his phone, feeling confused and unlocks it.

 

_Charlie – WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK DAN??_


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK - so I felt a bit mean leaving you on that cliffhanger, so here, have another short chapter!
> 
> It's a bit different that the rest, but hopefully gives a bit more insight into the world and whats been going on. Hope you enjoy...

Chapter Thirteen

 

Charlie woke up slowly that Monday morning and smiled at the memories of the previous day.

 

Even though he had told the guys he was heading home the same time as Woody and Will, he had actually separated from them and headed into the local town to meet up with the girl that seemed to be giving so much trouble to the band. He had then spent a number of hours chatting and getting to know her.

 

Yes, he had given her the iPad for her birthday. It had seemed like the best way to keep them all on track for the gigs coming up and he didn’t want them to look bad in front of the fans and festival goers any more than Dan did. But, it really hadn’t escaped his notice how attractive and sexy the girl was. She was very secure in herself and this had always been a turn on for the man. At the end of the coffee date he had walked her to the place where she was being picked up by her dad and they had shared a number of sweet kisses together.

 

Since joining the guys to tour a couple of years earlier he had become a lot more confident in himself and his attributes. Yes, he had toured with his own guys and with other bands, but it was only when he met Dan and the others that he felt he really belonged and could settle into his own personality. He was younger than the others, but he was able to hold his own with the guys and even he knew he was good at what he did. The only thing was, he had never had a serious relationship with a woman. He had had one night stands and hook-ups, but nothing that he felt would go the distance. But with Sharon…he didn’t know what it was. She knew her mind, she was confident. She was now 18, which was a big deal breaker for him, and when they were alone together she was genuine and honest and really seemed to like him.

 

He got out of bed and got ready for the day ahead. He was about to look at his phone to decide whether he should text the girl, when the message tone went off.

 

_Sharon – hi! Do you miss me yet? just practising new songs! Dan seems to be ok with me today. X_

He smiled when he got the message. One of the things Sharon had mentioned the previous day was how on edge she always seemed to be around Dan. She couldn’t feel comfortable with him. He had asked her about what the guys had told him about how she got in on the gig, and she had said that yes, she had rung Dave, but she really had kissed Dan that night. She was so sincere in what she had said that he had no choice but to believe her side of the story, and this thing between Dan and Kyle really had come to him out of left field.

 

_Charlie – good! I told you he would be. He’s not a bad guy. What you singing? X_

_Sharon – Blame at the moment. X_

Charlie scowled slightly at the slightly passive aggressive nature of the song choice, then mentally kicked himself because this was a song they had been singing a lot of lately. Of course she would have to learn it.

 

He spent the rest of the day milling around his own flat, tidying up and dealing with the pile of post he hadn’t had chance to see since he got back. After arriving back from the States he had immediately headed up to Leeds for a family thing and then Dan had called in a panic. He only had a small one bed flat, but God it could drum up a lot of post and bills!

 

Come the evening, he sat down with a pizza he had ordered and started texting Sharon again.

 

_Charlie – hi babe, missing you xxx_

_Sharon – missing you too!!!!! Why do you have to be away today? In movies with Ella and want you here in the dark with me : ( xxx_

_Charlie – what you seeing? Xxx_

_Sharon – just some horror movie Ella chose. Dan came too. Xxx_

_Charlie – enjoy xx_

And he heard nothing for about an hour. He had collapsed watching some stupid soap opera on the TV when his phone went again.

 

_Sharon – ummm…something weird just happened._

_Charlie – what? You ok? Xx_

_Sharon – Dan just put his hand on my leg. I had to move it._

_Charlie – are you sure? He didn’t just put it there by accident? Xx_

_Sharon – probably. I’m just being stupid. I’ll text you later. Xx_

Charlie went back to eating, trying to put the image of Dan hitting on the girl he liked out of his head. She had probably been mistaken. It had probably been an accident and he didn’t realise. He finishes what he was doing and headed to bed, absolutely exhausted from the tour and current hiatus.

 

He gets under the covers and starts to think about blond hair and luscious lips. His thoughts start to drift to what else those pink lips could do to him and images of that mouth stretched around his length spring to mind. He knows he’s alone at this point and he quickly strokes himself to completion thinking about the pert breasts and rounded hips of the girl he left back in the country. He drifts off quickly afterwards, anticipating the return journey back to the cabin.

 

\---

 

He is woken from his deep sleep from the ring tone of his mobile. He looks at the time and it is only 6am. He looks at the caller ID and sees the name Sharon blinking at him.

 

“Hello?” He answers, eyes still full of sleep and voice thick.

 

“Charlie?” came a meek voice at the other end of the phone. “It’s Sharon, can you talk just now? I’m sorry for waking you up.”

 

“Yeah, what’s up?”

 

“I’ve been awake thinking about this all night. I really don’t think the hand thing was a mistake. I saw him watch my phone when I was texting you and he knows we are starting to see each other.” She says, it sounds like tears are falling down her face. “And it was after he found out that he started doing it. He rubbed my leg as well and he gave me a look. I don’t want anything else to happen! Can you please talk to him about it? I don’t feel comfortable being alone with him now…” and she trails off.

 

Charlie starts to see red. She sounded really upset, and she wouldn’t be that upset if nothing had happened would she? He stays on the phone with her for about an hour longer talking things over and him soothing her mind – ensuring her that he would talk to Dan, sort out any misunderstanding and that he would come back that day to make sure everything was alright and sorted. He was trying desperately to keep calm, but a fire was starting to burn deep down inside him.

 

She seemed calmer by the end of the conversation and they both said good bye and that they would see each other later.

 

Charlie hung up his phone and immediately opened a new message.

 

_Charlie – WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK DAN???_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't hate Charlie! He can't help who he falls for!! x


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

 

Dan was not expecting that to be the thing he woke up to that morning. He was still half asleep, and in his sleep addled brain he couldn’t figure out what Charlie was on about.

 

_Dan - ???_

_Charlie – why the hell did you try it on with Sharon last night???? She’s terrified to be alone with you! I’ve just had her crying her eyes out for over an hour!_

_Dan - ??????_

_Dan – WTF man? I’m gay! Why the hell would I try it on with that little terrorist?? Also….I’M GAY!_

_Charlie – hey, I only found out about you and Kyle a week ago, that doesn’t mean your not also into girls. I’m on my way down. We’re gonna sort this out. I’m not happy_

“I’M GAY!” Dan shouts exasperatedly at the mobile device as he reads the last text, and throws it down on the bed. He quickly picks it up again and taps a few times on the screen before holding it up to his ear. The ringtone goes on for a couple of moments before a sleepy “’ello?” comes out of the speaker.

 

“I’m still gay right?” Dan asks. He had to make sure he hadn’t woken up in some strange alternate universe where everyone thinks he’s a prolific lady’s man.

 

“If you’re not you really shouldn’t be enjoying our extra-curricular activities as much as you do,” Kyle replies, a bit more awake.

 

“OK, that’s good. I’m not crazy then…although I think Charlie might be…” and he recounts exactly what he had woken up to that morning.

 

“So, wait, tell me exactly everything that happened last night. No detail left out…” and he then goes onto describe the texts he’d seen, the hand, the shaking of the head, everything.

 

“And were you ever left alone with her at all last night?” He asks lastly.

 

“Only for a few minutes while Ella got cash. I mean she stayed with Ella last night, but I never saw her after I came to bed.”

 

“Shit! Dan!” Kyle curses.

 

“What?? I never saw her! I haven’t done anything! Seriously Ky, you have to believe me!” Dan pleads down the phone.

 

“Don’t be an idiot, of course _I_ believe you, but if she’s currently spinning another yarn to Barnes, _he might not_ believe you!” Kyle iterates, slightly annoyed that his boyfriend is taking so long to pick up on this. Sod him for not believing in conspiracies! “I’m getting up, packing and coming back. Don’t get up or move til I get there. Hopefully I’ll bump into the kid on the way down and I can talk some sense into him.” Dan can hear him quickly moving around and throw things around and can see him in his mind’s eye packing a backpack. “Don’t move! I love you. See you soon.” And he hangs up on Dan.

 

It strikes Dan in that moment that even though he had always known he loved Kyle, they had never actually said it to each other.

 

\---

 

Forty-five minutes later Kyle’s standing on the platform at Charing Cross waiting for the train to take him back to his idiotic, trusting partner. He’s scrolling through twitter looking at the mass of crazy messages from the fans, when he glances up to see a younger bearded man standing about 100 metres away from him. He waits for the train to pull into the platform before he walks up behind him. Charlie is on his phone texting someone and isn’t paying attention to anyone around him.

 

He opens the manual train door and climbs into the carriage. It’s one of the older style trains where you have to pull the window down to open the door from the outside. Kyle isn’t too excited about riding for another three quarters of an hour on what looks and smells like the first train invented, but he breathes a big sigh and climbs into the carriage after the tour member.

 

Charlie chooses a table seat and sits himself down with his bag on the seat next to him. He’s still on his phone and barely moves when Kyle sits in the seat opposite him. Kyle waits for the train to move away from the platform before he simply says; “I think we need to have a little talk Charles, don’t you?”

 

Charlie glances up at that and startles when he realises it’s Kyle sitting in front of him. He breathes out loudly and the look that crosses his face is one that is not his usual happy go lucky one.

 

“Ah, so he’s set his little guard dog to deal with me has he?”

 

“Charlie, stop being so dumb. You know Dan’s not like that. He’s like a puppy…doesn’t know when to stop caring.” Kyle admonishes. “He’s just confused. He doesn’t know where you got this ridiculous idea from.” He adds.

 

“From the hour long tear filled phone call I had with Sharon this morning! She is legitimately terrified of Dan right now.”

 

Kyle raises one eyebrow at the slightly younger man. “This is the girl who told Dave we offered her a threesome?”

 

“Look, I asked her about that and I believe what she told me. And when it comes to you and Dan…I don’t know!! I never saw that coming! It could all be a phase for all I know! And you weren’t there either, so who knows what he does when you’re not around?!”

 

“OK, OK…Charlie, calm down, alright?” Kyle says, trying to soothe the other man. “Look, you believe what she told you, well I believe what Dan told me yeah? So, maybe it’s one big misunderstanding. But what I can definitely confirm to you is, me and Dan? It’s the real deal OK? I love him. I think he loves me. Can you try and believe that for me?”

 

Charlie slowly nods. He doesn’t look convinced in the slightest, but at least he’s stopped ranting and raving. They spend the rest of the trip in silence with Kyle listening to music through his headphones and Charlie simply staring out of the window at the passing countryside.

 

\---

 

Dan has been staring out of the windows of the cabin for about an hour when he finally sees the taxi dropping the two men off in the driveway. He had had a quick shower and gotten dressed, but he had done as Kyle had asked and not moved out of the building. He had received a text from Ella asking what was happening about practice, but he had fobbed her off with some excuse about a sore throat.

 

He heads out to the veranda at the front of the house and sits down on a wooden chair with a cup of tea. He watches his bearded man walk towards him and he can’t help but smile at the sight. Kyle has his aviator style sunglasses on, cat t-shirt, jeans and his leather jacket on. His beard seems to gleam in the sun and he looks suitably cool as he walks towards him. Charlie, on the other hand still has a look that could kill at thirty paces on his face. He is glowering towards Dan as he walks forwards. Dan stands up when he sees him and just grabs the young man into a manly hug.

 

“Charlie, I didn’t do anything. Please believe me.” Dan says into his ear and he can physically feel the man deflate in his arms.

 

“Let’s go in and talk.” He replies seriously, and walks towards the cabin. Kyle saunters behind him giving Dan a sad look. Dan was about to turn to go in when a movement caught his eye from one of the large windows in the main house and he saw Sharon glaring at him with her arms crossed in front of her. He gave her a small sarcastic salute and then watched as she turned and flounced away.

 

As he gets into the small house, the other two have situated themselves down on the chair and the sofa and Dan settles down onto the floor with his back leaning against Kyle’s legs. Automatically, Kyle reaches a hand down and starts to card his fingers through the older man’s soft dark hair. Both of the men look at Charlie and wait for him to start talking.

 

“I don’t care who started what. I don’t care if it’s a misunderstanding. I don’t want you and Sharon in the same place together alone anymore.” He starts.

 

“Charlie, that’s what I’ve been trying to do! Ever since this whole thing started-“ Dan starts, but is immediately cut off by the younger man.

 

“Don’t start Dan! I asked her about all of this and I believe what she told me. She is seriously worried about this and all she wants to do is sing and be recognised with how good she is!” Both Kyle and Dan raise their eyebrows at this, but before they ca say anything else Charlie continues. “If you can’t do that, then I don’t want to be part of this anymore and neither of you are the people I thought you were.”

 

Kyle and Dan stare at him dumbstruck. Was he seriously suggesting that he would leave them if Sharon wasn’t fully accepted into the band?

 

“So what do you want?” Kyle asks after the silence ends.

 

“She gets equal billing, same attention from everyone and press. We need to introduce her as our new member.” Charlie says finally. This was something that Dan didn’t want to have to handle at all.

 

“Charlie, I don’t think that’s a good idea. She’s trying to stir things…” Dan tries to argue.

 

“No, Dan. She doesn’t get this, I go. And I tell people about the whole thing too.”

 

“Charlie, you’ve only known her for 2 weeks…” Kyle tries to counter. Charlie shuts him up with a look, as if to say ‘this is finished.’

 

“We’ll speak to Will and Woody.” Dan finally agrees. He doesn’t confirm anything, but he does admit that it needs a full conversation. With that, Charlie nods and gets up to leave the cabin. After he goes out the door the guys see him meet Sharon in the garden and she is pulled to him in a private moment and he kisses her tenderly. She looks over his shoulder to the cabin as they pull apart and she smirks at the window.

 

“Why is she doing this?” Dan asks Kyle, exasperated. “What can this possibly get her??”

 

“Attention, fame and money. That’s all it can be.” Kyle responds. He’s already calling up Will and Woody on the phone to have a three way call and put Charlie’s demands to them.

 

The call is long. They explain everything and what Charlie has said to them. They explain the weird way Charlie is acting, and all Woody can offer is “well he’s hoping to get laid right?” as an explanation. Dan can’t quite see how this would be a reason for destroying their entire career, but at that moment, still no plans on how to get them out of the huge whole they had been showed into. They have no other choice at this moment in time than agree, or have serious shit coming their way.

 

They hang up after agreeing that they would head up to the London studio that week to knuckle down, get her fully drilled on all the songs and never leave Dan alone with her again.

 

There was a long sigh from the men. Dan was still on the floor thinking over everything. Kyle pulled Dan’s hair so his head was tilted backwards and he was looking up at him. He reaches down and slots his plump, ticklish lips over the older man’s for a soft kiss. He starts pulling at Dan’s lower lip with his teeth to open up his mouth and Dan groans into the deeper movement, pulling Kyle onto the ground with him. It was a passionate kiss that they shared this time. It consisted of mainly teeth and tongues, but neither of them paid any attention to the clashing that came with it. They hadn’t been apart for this long in a long time and they both felt the loss intensely, especially now that this new problem had occurred. Their tongues both fought for dominance in each other’s mouth as they reacquainted themselves with the other’s taste and feeling. When they finally pulled apart they were both breathless and feeling about as wrecked as they looked. Dan leant forward again to the other man’s ear and quietly said;

 

“I love you too you know.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you're all still enjoying this : / please let me know! Comments and Kudos = love : ) x


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, so needed something to take my mind off of the SPN finale tonight! Hope you enjoy.

Chapter Fifteen

 

Charlie takes Sharon home in a taxi and they all plan to meet at the station the following day to head back into the city for proper practice time. Sharon has miraculously talked her parents into springing for a Travel Inn for the time she would be there, and when Dan was told this his eyebrows raised as high as they possibly could because of the thought of the cost involved. Kyle was just happy she hadn’t wangled her way onto the couch at anyone’s flat.

 

Mr Smith hauled Kyle and Dan to the station first thing the next morning, Dan bringing all of his tour stuff back with him as this was the first time he had been home since the touring had started. They got on the train when it arrived and all sat at a table seat.

 

“Right,” Dan started. “We all talked yesterday and it’s been decided that you’ll be announced as an official tour member and have all the same rights as Charlie here. We’ve got some regional radio station thing coming up and we’ll do it then.” He finally conceded.

 

Charlie was beaming with happiness at that, and Sharon glanced up at him. There was a hint of darkness in her eyes as if she had been expecting something else, but when she saw how happy the man was she just smiled at him too. Dan could see she was thinking she would get studio status, but there was no way he was compromising that much for this little witch.

 

“Thanks Dan,” Charlie says, but nothing comes from the girl. They settle into silence with everyone listening to their own thing, and Dan playing Words with Friends with Will.

 

There’s some noise from the other side of the table and Kyle taps Dan’s hand to gesture at the other couple. Dan glances up and he sees the two sharing headphones and they’re both humming “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” at the same time. It obviously starts the chorus and they start automatically singing it together, Charlie with his high range and Sharon automatically harmonising. The thing that makes Dan stop and think though is that they actually sound good together. The song finishes and there is a smattering of applause from around the carriage from the few people who had heard.

 

_Dan – OK…That’s new_

_Kyle – mmm…_

\---

 

Kyle helps Dan back to his flat from the black cab they take from the station. He’s got two huge duffels and a keyboard case to carry up to his top floor flat, so he needs all the help he can get. Charlie and Sharon have head to her hotel or wherever, admittedly he hadn’t been listening. He digs a bunch of keys out of his pocket to unlock the front door and collapses inside.

 

It’s only a small place. Not quite a studio - he had been able to afford a separate bedroom – but… _bijou_ nonetheless. He looked at the side table at the front door and felt relieved he had asked his friend William to come by weekly while he was away. He groaned when he saw the pile of junk mail and pointless bills that had amassed. He still didn’t understand it, he had chosen paperless billing for nearly everything for a reason and they still insisted on mailing him stuff. He throws the keys next to the pile and moves his bags inside. Kyle grabs himself a glass of water from the ‘kitchen’.

 

“What you wanna do now?” Kyle asks as he comes back.

 

“Relax! I’m so tired!” Dan cries. “Alexa…play Dan’s Playlist.”

 

“Dan’s Playlist from Dan’s Spotify” comes the response from the speaker and his music starts playing. It’s a random mix of things that he hears, Shazam’s and automatically adds to it, so it’s currently sitting at about 11 hours long, but it automatically relaxes him.

 

Train’s “Play That Song” starts playing and Kyle walks over to him and grabs his hands. He puts them around his neck and then places his own hands on Dan’s hips and starts swaying them in time with the music.

 

“What are you doing?” Dan asks.

 

“Dancing with my insanely hot boyfriend.” Kyle replies. “Don’t tell him this, but he is so hot when he dances and it is nearly impossible for me to keep my hands off him.”

 

“OK, now I know your talking bullshit,” Dan laughs but is soon shut up with Kyle bending down to kiss him while still swaying together. As the kiss starts heating up and tongues start teasing each other, Kyle starts to move his arms further around Dan and reach up under his t-shirt to caress the soft skin he finds underneath.

 

The music changes to Cake by the Ocean, and with the change in song, the movements start to become dirtier. Kyle moves his thigh between the thigh of the shorter man and Dan starts to grind himself against it to the beat. His t-shirt is soon lost over his head and Kyle’s hands drop to his ass to grope the muscle there. He then grabs at Dan’s thighs and lifts him up so that his legs then wrap automatically around his waist. The kissing continues in earnest while all this is going on, but after he is lifted up they both break away to catch their breaths.

 

Foreheads pressed together and sharp breathing continue for a beat. They both look at each other to see the other’s spit slicked lips and flushed cheeks.

 

“Bedroom?” Kyle asks and Dan just nods quickly, and he is being carried through to the bed. He’s thrown onto the end of the mattress on his back and Kyle takes the moment to search his own bag for lube and a condom and rid himself of his own clothes. He is back within a minute to start kissing down Dan from his neck, adding to previous bruises that had also been left by the keyboard player. He saw the flush of where his beard had been rubbing against Dan’s smooth face and it made him even harder. He makes it down to his nipples, which have become extremely hard in arousal and he has to suck to make them harder.

 

Dan moans loudly at this and his back arches from the bed. He has wrapped his legs back around his lover and has dug his heels into Kyle’s backside to get him closer. Kyle finally finds Dan’s jeans button and zip and pulls them off with his boxers at the same time. He sighs at the sight of the engorged cock springing back and resting against his abdomen and leaving smears of wet precome in its wake. He inches further towards the clear arousal confronting him and he flattens his tongue and swipes the vein running on the underside of the member drawing a gasp of his name from the man.

 

He opens his mouth and sucks the head of the impressive length and allows Dan to thrust into his mouth to get the friction needed. He pulls off with an audible pop and Dan tries to follow the heat upwards. Kyle chuckles.

 

“So impatient…” he mutters as he opens the lid of the lube and spreads some on his fingers. He reaches between them again and swallows Dan whole while stroking down his perineum to his waiting hole. He strokes over it a few times and when he – quite expertly – deep throats his partner he presses his index finger past the muscle and all the way up to his knuckle. Dan screams “fuck, fuck, OH MY GOD, Ky,” as this happens and Kyle just hums and causes more vibrations on the singer’s cock. A second finger is added and he starts to scissor the opening for his own dick.

 

“If you don’t hurry up…” Dan manages to utter, but leaves his threat incomplete. He hadn’t noticed with Kyle’s amazing mouth the opening of the condom packet and Kyle rolling it down himself in preparation, and all of a sudden he is feeling the amazing burn and filling of Kyle entering him completely in one swift motion.

 

Once this has happened, neither of them last much longer. Kyle manages to thrust a few times before he feels Dan’s muscles tightening around him and then feels the hot liquid pool between. He only lasts a few more before his own need takes over and he comes shouting Dan’s name.

 

Kyle’s legs then give way under him and he can no longer stand, falling full force on his boyfriend, leading to a small ‘ughh’ from the older man.

 

“Sorry,” he says quietly.

 

“Never apologise for that,” Dan says sleepily and kisses him on the forehead. Kyle chuckles. “We should actually get on the bed surely?” Dan asks. “I’m tired. Nap?” and he feels a face full of hair nodding against his shoulder.

 

“Come on, then sleepyhead,” and they both manage to scramble up the bed to sleep.

 

“Dan,” Kyle asks as he’s half asleep.

 

“Yeah,” comes the equally sleepy reply.

 

“Did we just fuck to A Whole New World?”

 

Neither of them are awake to answer.

 

\---

 

It’s the familiar journey to the studio the following morning. The boys had actually slept through to about midnight ordered pizza and slept the rest of the night and Dan now felt ready to take on anything.

 

They arrive at the red brick building and let themselves in. They say hi to the girl at the reception as they sign in and head up to their room. It was a building which a lot of bands in the capital used, but they had signed a lease on the rooms they used so they could produce and record their music without bother from anyone else and always have their kit set up.

 

It was nice to be back in their familiar territory again. They walked in and Dan automatically walks over to the piano he had put in after the lease was signed. He starts playing a few chords and then just starts making up tunes on the fly. Kyle watches for a few minutes. He has always been amazed at how the man can do that. Kyle’s not silly, he can write compositions and some music, but when it comes from Dan it’s like he produces it from his fingers. There are no missed notes or sharp chords and everything he plays sounds beautiful.

 

The door swings open behind them and Will and Woody enter at the same time lugging breakfast in the familiar brown and yellow bags with them.

 

“Lifesaver!” Kyle pounces on a sausage and egg bagel.

 

“Coffee?” Dan asks simply, and Woody hands him a large cup. He looks at Woody suspiciously, at the cup before he takes it, and then glances at Will. “Is it safe?”

 

“I can throw it away you know!” Woody admonishes sharply, and Dan just sips it purposefully before his precious caffeine can go anywhere.

 

There’s a ringing coming from the booth and Will heads over to answer the phone.

 

“That’ll be Charlie.” Kyle advises. As he was only a touring member he didn’t have a pass for the building and so had to be signed in as a guest.

 

Will comes back from reception with the man and his girlfriend trailing behind. She starts staring around the room with a look of awe on her face. There were framed pictures of the various accolades they had received and of the art of the two albums. There was also a lot of recording equipment and kit around.

 

“OK, so plan for today…we get through as many songs as we can. Sharon, just listen. Make notes, ask questions. This is how I should’ve done this from the start.” Dan says. He is in leader mode today. Kyle can see it and he’s proud of him. "You're going to be harmonising with Charlie. Stick with him alright?" and Sharon silently nods.

 

“Oh, and we have interview tomorrow. Don’t say anything stupid or contentious. You do, you’re out and sod the consequences.” He adds.

 

Sharon just stares at him with an open mouth, gaping.

 

_‘Oh yes_ …” Kyle thinks to himself. _‘My boy’s taking no prisoners now!’_ and they all settle in for the long haul.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...went with a few songs this chapter...
> 
> 'I Don't Wanna Live Forever' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F37r50VUTQ
> 
> 'Play That Song' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5qWnG5RQTk
> 
> 'Cake by the Ocean' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWaRiD5ym74
> 
> and some may not know it but... 'A Whole New World' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HDcHEu00jg
> 
> Hope you like x


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for homophobic language...sorry : (

Chapter Sixteen

 

“So we’re here with Bastille!!” comes the overly excited voice from the Radio DJ in the booth opposite them. It was still pretty early in the morning and they were doing a quick guest spot on the local breakfast show. They had all crowded into the small guest booth and were all squeezed in together around two microphones.

 

“Hi!” They all say as cheerfully as possible for that time in the morning. Dan had only had one cup of coffee by this point, and was finding it very difficult to be chipper and happy. That and the fact he was having to announce Sharon to the fans today too.

 

“So you’ve just got back from your World tour! Dan, how did that go?” The girl asks them.

 

“Uh, yeah it went really well. We’re back for a bit of a break and to see the UK fans, but we’ll be heading back out again by the end of the year.”

 

“It was great to see how other countries take us.” Will pipes up.

 

“Cool! Great!” the girl says, not really listening to the answers she was getting. “So I see you’ve got a couple of extra new people with you today!”

 

“Oh, well Charlie isn’t really new, he’s been touring with us for a couple of years. We let him play one day and he never went home again!” Woody interrupts. “But this is Sharon, she’s our new touring member this year.”

 

“Wow, boys! Adding a girl into the mix eh?!” She misses the way Dan rolls his eyes when she says that. “So Sharon, tell us a bit about you!”

 

And the interview goes on for another couple of minutes like that – finding out about the new girl and how it was going to change band dynamics. Thankfully it did end with the station playing Send Them Off – a song Dan felt very fitting for them to leave to.

 

They’re standing outside waiting for the cab they had ordered and Dan was thinking that the whole thing could have gone a lot worse. Maybe she was starting to settle down and she was going to be normal as she could be after blackmailing and manipulating herself into their lives.

 

“Hey mate,” Kyle says coming over to him. “Look at this.” And he hands him his phone with Twitter up.

 

_“Hey @bastilledan! Got a girl on the team now! You boning her and she insist on keeping an eye on you?”_

_“@bastilledan who do I have to sleep with to get on tour?”_

_“@bastilledan, DON’T IGNORE ME!”_

_“@bastilledan @kyle_jsimmons is this the end of Dyle_ _L_

 

“Dyle?” He asks.

 

“Apparently us together is a thing.” Kyle tells him and raises his eyebrows at him.

 

“And they like that?” Dan asks, confused.

 

Kyle just slyly nods his head with a smirk and walks away again. Dan’s phone rings then and he sees their manager’s name pop up on the screen.

 

“Hey Dave.” Dan answers.

 

“Dan, fantastic interview. Glad she’s settled in. Look, she’s going to get a piece done on her for a teen magazine thing. Y’know only girl surrounded by guys kind of idea. Photo shoot and everything. I’ll send you the details and you all have to go. Oh, and you have a gig. New festival, a slot opened up and we got you in. Next weekend. Speak soon, bye.”

 

As the phone shuts off in his ear he looks at the handset blankly. “Bye, Dave.” He says. He has just had a lot of information thrown at him in a very short space of time.

 

“Dave?” Woody asks and Dan just nods. “You need more caffeine to deal with that.” Dan looks at him with puppy dog eyes from behind his glasses and just nods pleadingly.

 

The taxi pulls up for them and they all climb in. “Sorry mate,” Woody says to the taxi driver. “Change of plan, find us a big Starbucks?” And the driver nods and pulls away.

 

\---

 

They have some coffee and relaxation time before heading back to the studio to start more rehearsal, especially now they had the upcoming concert to prepare for. The interview and photo shoot that none of them apart from Sharon was looking forward too was the following week just before her only exam.

 

Halfway through getting Sharon ready for the next song, the phone in the booth went and Kyle headed over to answer it.

 

“Y’ello?” He drawls down the phone.

 

“Hi, it’s Katie at reception, there’s a Margaret Philps down here to see you?” Kyle furrowed his eyebrows at the name and remembers that Philps is Sharon’s surname.

 

“Cool, someone’ll be down.” And he hangs up. “Guys, there’s a visitor. I’ll be back.”

 

He heads out the door and down the stairs to the reception area. There, standing with her back to him was the woman who had been introduced to them all as Sharon’s mother at her party and the woman he had heard colluding with the teen. He holds back a groan and heads out to her with his hand outstretched.

 

“Mrs Philps? Sharon didn’t say we were expecting you. Can I help?”

 

“And you are?” She says disdainfully and side eyes his hand as if it was infected with something.

 

Kyle pulls his hand back away from her and shakes his head. “Kyle.” He says. “You know, one of the poor bastards you and your daughter blackmailed into doing this shit.” He adds with a plastered smile on his face so that no one could see the malice he was trying to imply.

 

She looks slightly taken aback at that, but only for a second, before a smile clearly as dangerous as her daughter’s went over her lips. “I have no idea what you mean,” she says sweetly. “Oh, you’re a recording artist aren’t you? I have a lovely interesting audio clip that might be very nice for your next song…” she says slyly reminding Kyle that there were recordings of him and Dan out there.

 

Kyle bites his bottom lip, running the hair from his beard over his top lip in the way he always did when he was thinking hard. He decides this is not a fight worth having at this moment and walks over to the lifts to get her up to their rooms. There’s silence for the entire journey up until the doors slide open and they are about to get out.

 

She puts her arm out to grab his wrist and he startles at the touch. “Don’t let any of that unnatural homoerotic stuff get anywhere near my daughter you beast!” And she pushes past him and walks out of the lift. Kyle stares after her in complete shock, and for once in his life he is actually dumbstruck. He had been lucky in his life, and had never had any specific homophobia directed towards him. If he wasn’t certain he would be arrested for ABH he would have run after her and demanded an apology, but instead he watched her identify the rooms with ‘Bastille’ written on them and push the door open.

 

He’s struck by the thoughts of him and Dan, and what it might mean if they did come out in public. OK, so ‘Dyle’ seemed to have a decent following, but maybe Dan is right when he panics about this entire situation. He decides he has to actually think properly about the entire situation and what exactly could happen.

 

“Mum!” Comes the shriek from the corner of the room and Sharon is running over to the older woman to give her a big hug. Kyle wanders in shortly behind her and Dan can see that something’s happened. He heads over to him and puts his hand protectively between his shoulder blades and starts trying to comfort him. He’s shocked when Kyle just shrugs him off and walks over to the keyboards at the other side of the room.

 

“Well, sweetheart, I just wanted to come and see exactly what you’ve been up to.” Says the woman snidely.

 

Dan looks around at everyone and tells them all to have a five-minute break. Mrs Philps just looks at him as if to say ‘why do you think you’re in charge’, but nothing is said. Sharon grabs Charlie and drags him over to properly introduce him to her mother.

 

Dan heads over to where Kyle is and tries to talk to him. “Don’t Dan,” he snaps. “I’m not in the mood.” And he starts moving things around and keeping busy, and Dan just feels his heart sink in his chest.

 

After the break is over, Sharon wants to show her mum exactly what they had been doing with her singing and Mrs Philps sits down regally on an old office chair they had and gives a hand gesture as if to say ‘go on’.

 

Dan is so perplexed by this, but just presses a couple of keys on the keyboard and just looks around saying, “OK, so shall we run through Lethargy?” and gets nods and agreements from the others.

 

So they start singing for 4 minutes to basic music for the song and Sharon and Charlie actually sound pretty excellent together, even Dan has to admit it. There is nothing from the older woman at all and she just sits there quietly for the entire performance. At the end, Dan turns round smiling at the rest and praises them all, until he hears a small cough from the chair.

 

“Well, _obviously_ Sharon sounds amazing, but there was never doubting that. But, _my goodness_ you should use her more to drown out your strange voice. I mean you just sing your vowels very peculiarly.” And points at Dan when saying that. To her credit, Sharon blushes a fierce red and does try and hush her mother while she is saying that.

 

“Clearly, we’re not to your taste then…” Dan begins slowly.

 

“Hey Dan!” Woody interrupts, “don’t apologise for you! Look, lady. You don’t like us, but the people who buy our music do so you’re just gonna have to deal I’m afraid.” And a rush of gratitude just flows over Dan towards the drummer. But what hurts Dan more than he realised was that Kyle just stood there, leaning against the wall saying nothing.

 

“Well, I am Sharon’s manager now, so I will be staying around for a while to listen to what’s going on.” And the room erupts while they have an argument about that new revelation.

 

It settles down eventually when Dan agrees that she can be present a couple of days a week as long as she doesn’t try and change anything, and before finishing up they start teaching her These Streets.

 

They finish up at around 6pm and they all head out the door. Dan still hasn’t had any interaction with Kyle apart from cursory talks about the music and he’s starting to worry something has happened. He tries to get him alone but by the time Dan has locked up the studio and gotten downstairs Kyle has disappeared. Will is still waiting for a lift to pick him up and looks at Dan as he comes out.

 

“Hey Dan, you ok?” He asks as he sees that Dan is severely confused.

 

“Yeah. Has Kyle said anything to you?” he asks.

 

“Nothing mate. He got a taxi him. Said he had an appointment or something. Everything alright in paradise?”

 

“Yeah, it’ll be fine,” Dan answers with a smile that betrayed the hurt he was feeling inside, and heads home.

 

\---

 

_Dan – have I done something wrong?_

_Kyle – no, just tired._

_Dan – really? You’re not ignoring me?_

_Kyle – no. tired really._

_Dan – love you xxx_

_Kyle – go to sleep Dan. See you tomorrow._

 

\---

 

In a Travel Inn elsewhere in the city, an 18-year-old and her mother are having an in depth conversation.

 

“Mum, really, what are you doing here?”

 

“Well, to be honest, Darling, I’m trying to keep you on track. You know what we decided and I think you’ve lost sight of the overall goal.”

 

“I haven’t mum. Really! There is only so much I can do right now! I have Charlie on my side now though, so there is progress.”

 

“Well, I’m here to help now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just FYI, for anyone not UK based reading:
> 
> ABH - Actual Bodily Harm  
> Travel Inn - motel type accommodation. Cheap but popular!!
> 
> Oh, I do not think that about Dan's singing, but have heard it said which upset me dreadfully!!
> 
> Again, hope you do enjoy. Let me know if anything is bad or any suggestions.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, a bit of a smaller chapter today! Enjoy

Chapter Seventeen

 

Dan opens his eyes and looks at his phone. 4:30am - deciding to call it a bust, he just gets out of bed and stumbles towards the kitchen. He had been awake all night just thinking about Kyle and what he could have possibly done to piss him off.

 

He has had no more texts from his boyfriend since he was told to go to sleep, but he has sent a number to him. He was turning into a 13-year-old trying to get the attention of his crush, but he was really confused about the turnaround in affection from the man. At one point he thought maybe his phone was off or broken, but he went on to twitter and there was a whole load of his normal rants sitting there from that evening.

 

He groans as he fills his Nespresso machine with water to get his energy burst for the morning. He runs his hand through his growing hair and thinks that he needs it cut again. The one problem with having it in this style was it needed looked at least monthly to stop him looking like a hobo. He switches the machine on and waits for the caffeine to fill the game of thrones Lannister mug. Downing the warm liquid in one mouthful, he decides to get dressed and go and do some work. With all the drama he had been neglecting his other work and at least that might distract him some.

 

He has a quick shower and throws on some clean clothes, does his hair and puts his contacts in. Today he will at least try to look better than he feels. It's still dusk outside and it looks like it's going to rain so he throws on his Twin Peaks hoody, grabs his wallet and keys and joins the throng of commuters making their own way through the city streets trying to get into their own offices early.

 

He chooses the underground to get to the studio, topping up his Oyster card on the way and wanders towards the building. He looks at his watch and sees it's not even 7, so he knows he's going to have to use the security card access to get in. He swipes his card, hears the click of the lock and pushes the door open. He's right in his assumption he's the only one there as it's only the security lights that shine his way up to the second floor. He opens the door to the production booth and throws his keys and pass onto the desk. He settles into the office chair while the computer boots up and he sighs loudly and puts his head on his hands.

 

He suddenly hears a ding from his pocket and he scrambles to look at the screen and open the message when he sees it's Kyle.

 

_Kyle - not gonna be in. Cold_

 

Dan just stares at the message, ironically because cold is exactly how he is left feeling when he reads it.

 

_Dan - can I do anything?_

 

There's silence for a few minutes and Dan gives up waiting for a reply when he rings him instead.

 

"Alright, it's Kyle. Leave a message." _Beep._

 

Dan hangs up and looks at his phone. He knows Kyle is there, he's just got a message for crying out loud! He rings again and gets the same message.

 

"Hey Ky, it's me. Just wanting to make sure you're ok...you must've gone back to sleep again. I'll call later. Let me know if I can get you anything. Love you," and he hangs up.

 

He throws the phone down next to the computer keyboard and tries to ignore it as much as he can. He opens up his emails and tries to find the last lot of messages about his current project. He finds the files on the hard drive and tries to lose himself in the music and beats coming from the speakers.

 

He lasts an hour. A whole hour before he has to give up because he's certain he's probably just edited an entire song into something worse than Rebecca Black's Friday or the crazy frog. He gets up and wanders into the studio and sits down at his piano. He plays a few scales and stops abruptly.

 

All he can think of is Kyle sitting next to him when they were on tour, playing the same music at the same keyboard. Thighs touching gently and secret glances to the side every few notes. He honestly can’t imagine what could have happened that has changed everything so quickly between them. They were happy…well, Dan thought they were happy.

 

He’s sitting at the keys when the others start filtering in one by one.

 

“God, Danny-boy, you look like shit!” Woody so eloquently announces as he walks in.

 

Will walks over to him and just takes in everything about the singer – the dark circles under his eyes and the blotchiness in his cheeks from where he had been trying not to cry.

 

“What’s happened?” He asks gently as he sits down next to him.

 

“Nothin’!” Dan says, as jovially as he can manage. “Couldn’t sleep is all, I’m fine!” he adds. “Oh, Kyle text. He’s not coming in today, something about a cold.”

 

“We can do that?” Woody asks jokingly, and Will glances at him giving him a stare that just shuts him up immediately.

 

“Is everything OK?” Will tries again, and Dan knows he means between him and Kyle.

 

“Yeah! No worries.” He says with a smile on his face that hurt his cheeks with the force he was putting into it.

 

Will just stares at him again with that knowing look and walks away. “We need supplies,” is all he says and walks out quickly.

 

\---

 

Coming back half an hour later with Charlie and Sharon at his heels, Will is carrying breakfast for everyone. Dan can’t face eating anything but grabs at the large diet coke and balances it on the edge of the piano while everyone else eats. He starts playing notes at random and it’s not until he notices Sharon next to the piano that he realizes he’s playing the tune to a Savage Garden song.

 

“That’s really pretty,” the girl says to him.

 

“Yeah, I didn’t write it,” he says bitterly and looks at her. She looks the most genuine he has seen her for the last few weeks, and that makes his own reactions change and he softens slightly.

 

“So, Kyle isn’t here so I’ll play the chords and we can get some more done today yeah?” and that’s the start of the day.

 

They manage to get through and practice These Streets without a hiccup and onto Of the Night. There was a slight break when Sharon admitted she had never heard the two songs it was based on so Woody insisted that he musical education needed broadening while he brought up Corona and Snap on YouTube so she can see the originals.

 

“Seriously! Kids today! No sense of nostalgia!” Woody grouses as he’s showing her the songs, shushing everyone who tries to make a noise. “I’m telling you Dan, you should’ve gotten Mr. Vain in there too for the trifecta of 90’s dance…”

 

This then led onto a long conversation about how songs all essentially sound alike and then Dan searching for the 4 Chord song to prove it.

 

Despite how bad his day had started, the practice ended pretty well. Sharon was relaxed and spent most of the day cuddled into Charlie’s side and Charlie was ecstatic about this. Dan was beginning to see a change in the girl and this did make him happy – or maybe relieved was a better word for it.

 

They ended the day at about half 6 when they had completely exhausted their work for the day. The others moved out again, and Dan decided he would stay a bit longer to try out work on that song again. He shouted his goodbye’s to the others and headed back into the booth. His phone was still on his desk, and it was still standing empty. No missed calls or texts from Kyle at all, but a number of notifications of things he had put on twitter.

 

He clicked it open and he had a look at the things he was posting. It was mainly memes and cat videos. Nothing exciting. He swiped quickly through his replies and the word ‘Dyle’ still stood out to him. He had no idea that this was such a big thing. Maybe Dave was wrong when he said they needed to be single for them to work. He had seen a number of rainbow flags on tour and from what he was seeing it seemed like a lot of the fans were pretty open.

 

It really meant nothing at that moment if Kyle wasn’t even talking to him for whatever reason. He had to get hold of him. He looks at his watch at the time and decides to head out to Kyle’s flat. He collects his stuff and heads out of the rooms and starts to lock up.

 

“Dan…” a soft voice comes from behind him.

 

Dan looks around at his name and sees the moustache and beard of the man he loved looking at him. He had very sad, downcast eyes and he looked as exhausted as Dan felt.

 

“Ky! How are you feeling?” Dan asks as he walks forward to hug him. Kyle stops him before he gets too close. “Seriously Kyle!” Dan says, now very concerned. “What the hell is going on??” he demands.

 

“Let’s get out of here.” Kyle says, and he takes Dan to a hole in the wall pub around the corner from the studio.

 

They both pints and get a small table in the corner of the bar. There’s silence for a few moments as they both try the beer they have.

 

“So, you obviously want to say something…” Dan starts.

 

“Yeah. Dan, please let me talk first OK?” Kyle says. Voice steady and quiet. Dan starts to worry.

 

“We’ve had a good time together yeah? But I’ve been thinking that maybe what we had was maybe a tour thing? It’s just a bit more difficult now we’re home and there’s other things going on. So, yeah, I think it’s better that we chalk this up to a good time and start going back to how it was before yeah?”

 

Dan’s stomach drops suddenly and he can’t say anything at all. “But…I thought…but?” is all that he can get out.

 

“Don’t make this any harder Dan,” Kyle says, and Dan can see the tears in the corner of the other man’s eyes.

 

“You don’t mean this Kyle! I can tell you don’t!” Dan pleads.

 

“It has to be like this OK? It’s better for all of us OK?” Kyle says with finality and leaves the singer sitting in the corner of the pub with tears streaming down his face.

 

Kyle opens the door to the bracing air outside and looks back at Dan who is now staring at his own glass.

 

“I love you,” he whispers softly, and walks away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't hate me!!
> 
> Music mentioned...  
> Friday - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfVsfOSbJY0  
> Crazy Frog - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k85mRPqvMbE  
> Corona - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3ltZmI5LQw  
> Snap - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkhGkRahU6g  
> And that savage garden song is - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blybwDEXNPI
> 
> Hope you like. I expect all deaththreats following this x


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So these guys wouldn't shut up in my head until I wrote more! Hope 2 in one day is OK for you guys. Please enjoy.

Chapter Eighteen

 

_24 hours previously…_

_Kyle – go to sleep Dan. See you tomorrow._

 

Kyle throws his phone onto the sofa next to him as he settles down to watch some Netflix, and downs the straight Vodka he had next to him. He hated pulling away from the man he loved, but he needed some space to think things through.

 

He had always been bisexual, and never been afraid to let anyone know in his life. His parents were alright with it – they preferred him having girlfriends, but he knew that if he ever brought a guy home they wouldn’t run him out of the house. He was secure in his sexuality and had never hidden it. He had heard stories from friends about the abuse they had had when coming out, and the problems that family had given them, and he wasn’t stupid, he knew people were bigoted, but he never seemed to feel this was a problem for him. It was always something that happened to other people.

 

But the way that woman had spoken to him earlier and the look he had been given – he felt like he was being branded as some sexual predator that would do anything to anyone. He knew it wasn’t the worst thing that could be said to him, not by a long shot, but he had been pretty sheltered up until this point. And what with everything that had been threatened to him and Dan since this whole shit storm started, it was all starting to take its toll.

 

He picks up his phone again and starts scrolling through his photo album. He smiles softly to himself when he goes through the photos of him and Dan together, pretending not to touch or trying to act friendly for the camera. He could easily see though where people got the idea they were together. Even from photos from years ago they always seemed to have arms around each other, or be looking at each other with some private joke between them. He sighs again and goes to twitter to lift his mood. He posts some videos of cats being assholes and replies to some of the fans with his usual brand of sarcasm before switching it off.

 

Almost immediately the phone lights up and starts playing his ringtone of the week. He looks at the name and sees it’s Dave. He checks the time and is confused as to why he would be rung at this time of night. He usually only warrants an email and anything else goes through Dan.

 

“Hey Dave, what’s up?” He answers casually despite his confusion.

 

“Kyle. We need to talk.” Is the response he gets.

 

“Kinda figured since you’re on the phone pal.” Kyle tells him. There’s a deep sigh from the other end of the phone. “OK, sorry, how can I help?”

 

“Well, you are more that aware of the current situation with this girl. I don’t know if you’ve met her mother at all?” Dave starts.

 

“Yeah, she was at the studio today and we had seen her before at Sharon’s birthday thing.” Kyle informs him. “She’s lovely eh?” He asks sarcastically.

 

“She’s…got very firm viewpoints,” is all Dave says in reply to Kyle. “I’ve met with her today and she has requested that you and Dan stop any unprofessional relationship around Sharon.” Dave was clearly choosing his words carefully now. Before Kyle is able to say anything else he continues, “she has said that if you don’t she will release the story to the press and also get the police involved.”

 

Kyle exhales loudly and throws himself back onto the sofa. He drags his hand down his face rubbing his facial hair for comfort. There’s silence on both ends of the phone for what feels like an eternity.

 

“Why are you telling me?” Kyle finally asks.

 

“Because I think you would do anything to keep things on an even keel. You’ll make sure that everyone’s interests are looked after instead of just yours and his.”

 

“You know that line you told him about relationships ruining out career really got to him yeah? It’s bullshit Dave. You just know that I’ll do this to keep him safe and therefore saving you a lot of bother,” Kyle retorts acidly down the phone.

 

“Well, you say potato…” Dave replies.

 

“Whatever.” Kyle says and hangs up on his manager. He growls in frustration and hurls his phone to the other side of the room.

 

He pours another glass of vodka and downs it again. He hears his phone beeping from the other side of the phone and he knows without looking at it that it’s Dan texting. He carries the bottle and his glass through to his bedroom and collapses onto the bed. He crawls up the bed until his head is on the pillow and he drops the bottle onto the floor. He falls asleep with silent tears falling from the corners of his eyes.

 

\---

 

He wakes up early the next day with a killer headache. A mix of alcohol and emotion from the previous night has come together to make him feel like death warmed up. He looks for his phone before remembering he had lobbed it at a pot plant the night before.

 

He struggles out of bed and into the open plan living room and kitchen. He heads over to the poor cheese plant he had assaulted the previous night. He mumbles a half assed apology to the plant and looks at the screen. It’s just gone 7am and he has 3 separate messages from Dan each one getting more worried. He sighs for what feels like the thousandth time and he opens a new message.

 

_Kyle – not gonna be in. Cold_

 

He felt like shit just sending that, but he needs more time to think before he sees the man, and he knows that if he hasn’t made a decision he will falter as soon as he sees those gorgeous puppy dog eyes and floppy hair.

 

The reply comes back almost instantly.

 

_Dan – can I do anything?_

And that guilt returns in full force. He shuts the app down and heads back to his bed. He can’t handle this right now. That’s when his phone vibrates and sings in his hand.

 

“God, Dan please leave me alone!” he mumbles to himself and sends the call to voicemail. It rings again a couple of minutes later and he just does the same again. He sees that he has a voicemail come in after that call, but he can’t bring himself to listen to it so he falls asleep to clear his head.

 

\---

 

He wakes up a number of hours later. His head has cleared now and he feels a bit more able to make a decision about the problem. He looks at his phone to check the time and there’s a message from Dave waiting for him, but nothing else.

 

_Dave – Kyle. I wasn’t joking last night. She has a file set up to go to the police if its needed. Please do the right thing_

 

This was it for Kyle. He loves Dan with all of his heart, but he can’t let this get so out of hand. He knows he has to end this because of this bigoted woman.

 

_Kyle – Alright Dave. But I need to meet the woman before anything happens._

He waits for the manager to get back to him with a time and address. He has a shower, does his hair and dresses in jeans and graphic cat t-shirt. He gets the address and heads out to meet who he now informally calls “bitch woman from hell” in his head.

 

He manages to get to the café first. He orders himself a coffee and waits at a table outside. He lights up a cigarette and as soon as he does that he sees the older woman heading towards him. He thinks for a second that she will walk right past him, but she stops at the table and gives him a filthy look up and down.

 

Kyle takes the cigarette from his lips and hold it between his fingers as he just looks at the woman under his sunglasses and smirks.

 

“Really didn’t think you would bother showing up if I’m honest,” the keyboard player says to her.

 

She pulls a chair out and sits down slowly across the table from the man. “You wanted to see me?” Is all she says to him.

 

He takes a long drag and blows the smoke out away from the table.

 

“I just wanted you to know that I’m going to do what you asked Dave. But I just wanted to let you know that I will stop what you’re doing. I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with us, or why you hate me and Dan being together, but we will get you out of our lives.”

 

She just smiles that small smirk at him. “I hate you and _Dan_ , is it? Because you’re unnatural, and I won’t have my daughter around that. Especially when she finally becomes the main part of your little ‘band’. I have friends in high places my boy. There’s no way I’m getting out of your hair any time soon.”

 

With that she gets up gracefully and swans out of sight with Kyle glaring after her.

 

\---

 

Kyle heads towards the studio after his meeting. He wants to see Dan on his own, so he keeps out of sight until he sees the other’s leaving one by one and heads into the building. He stands by the lift and waits until he sees his boyfriend leave the room.

 

“Dan…” Kyle says quietly when he sees him come out of the booth. Dan immediately looks at him when he hears it and he smiles as soon as he sees its Kyle. Kyle’s heart breaks again just looking at the happiness on his lover’s face.

 

“Ky! How are you feeling?” Dan asks as he walks forward to hug him. Kyle stops him before he touches him. He knows if he lets him do that he won’t be able to do what needs done. “Seriously Kyle!” Dan shouts at him. Kyle knows that he’s worried now. “What the hell is going on??” he demands.

 

“Let’s get out of here.” Kyle suggests. He knows there’s a pub nearby which will be quiet. He walks down the stairs to the front a few paces ahead of the singer. He doesn’t want to be anywhere near touching distance, no matter how much his skin is currently screaming at him to take Dan and never let go.

 

After Kyle buys the drinks and settles them down on the table, Dan looks over at him and essentially calls him out in order for him to start talking.  

 

“Yeah. Dan, please let me talk first OK?” Kyle replies to him. His voice sounds steady, but inside Kyle is shaking like a leaf, knowing exactly what is going to come out of his mouth next.

 

He hears him use the same old platitudes about having a ‘good run’ and not letting it change anything. He hears Dan trying to change his mind, but as soon as he sees the tears well up in the other man’s eyes he knows he has to get out of the building before he says something he regrets.  

 

“You don’t mean this Kyle! I can tell you don’t!” Dan pleads.

 

“It has to be like this OK? It’s better for all of us OK?” Kyle firmly says as he gets up and leaves. Kyle opens the door to the bracing air outside and looks back at Dan who is now staring at his own glass.

 

“I love you,” he whispers softly, and walks away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgot to post this last chapter, but the four chord song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I
> 
>  
> 
> Sorry for some repetition at the end, but needed to get up to date with the previous chapter! x


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Homophobic language at the end, sorry.

Chapter Nineteen

 

Dan’s not exactly sure what wakes him up the next morning. He sits up and glances around him feeling extremely confused. He stretches out his shoulders and cricks his neck with a satisfying crunch. He looks properly around him and sees his desk, mixing decks and computer and remembers he had slunk back to the studio after a hefty amount of alcohol.

 

He groans loudly and drags his hand down his face to scratch at the stubble growing on his chin. He feels awful, and as the full realisation of what had happened the previous night comes back to him, he feels the pooling of tears in his eyes again. He pushes away from the wooden desk and hears more creaks and pops as he moves to go to the bathroom down the corridor. His watch is telling him it’s eight in the morning so he had to get himself looking more human before the others start arriving.

 

The door opens easily into the large bathroom shared by the entire floor. The dark haired man leans against the bank of sinks in front of him and studies his face in the mirror. He is faced with a man who is clearly needing some help. His thick hair is pointing out at all angles from where he has repeatedly run his hands through it most of the night and then collapsed in sleep. His eyes are red from the crying and he still has tear tracks down his cheeks. And his normally bright and cheerful eyes now have black circles under them to rival the pandas at the zoo.

 

Running the cold water for a couple of minutes he cups his hand under the liquid and throws the droplets on his face and scrubs, as if he is trying to completely remove his features into something a bit more presentable. He finds a bottle of mouthwash that he hides in the bathroom for the occasions that he is too busy to go home and swirls it around his mouth to get rid of the stale alcohol and sleep breath. Finally, he throws his head under the tap to wet his hair to make it sit a bit better. Standing back up and re-evaluating himself he sees a slightly less tragic sight and shrugs at himself.

 

He opens the door of the bathroom to head back to the studio and sees the backs of three guys walking into the room. The last man looks back towards him smiling at some joke that had been said and all Dan can see is the smiling and laughing face of the man who he had thought until last night he would spend the rest of his life with. The smile drops of his face when he sees the movement is Dan, wearing the same clothes from the previous night and looking only slightly better than Death warmed up.

 

Dan mentally steels himself for the interaction, and purposefully walks towards the door. He walks past him and simply says, “Glad to see your cold is better,” and sits himself down at the piano while they wait for the final two to arrive.

 

Kyle barely says anything to Dan for the rest of the day, and everyone else notices within the first couple of minutes of being around him that something was obviously up with the singer as they all just nodded and did everything they could to pass the day. This was fine by Dan. He was only there in that moment to complete a job and he couldn’t be arsed with politics or complaining or bitching.

 

He gets home about 7ish after calling it a day and collapses onto his old sofa. He’s trying to decide between Dominoes and Pizza Hut when his phone goes and he looks at the screen to see it’s his old friend William ringing him.

 

He had first met William about 10 years earlier, and this was a man who wasn’t in any way involved in the music scene or even care about his level of celebrity. He worked in some office in the city and had a very active social life with the people that he met. While Dan was always awkward and nervous around new people, William never was and this usually led to fun when they got together as he tried to get Dan to come out of his shell more. And he was gay. They had had an extremely uncomfortable one night stand about 8 years earlier which they never talked about again, but before Dan and Kyle had come out to anyone, William had been the only one Dan had ever talked to about his sexuality.

 

He ignored the ringing the first three times it went, but by the fourth Dan realised that he clearly wasn’t going to give up.

 

“What?!” he shouted down the phone.

 

“Wow, you’re in a good mood.” William replies down the phone.

 

“I’m tired. Not been sleeping well.” Is all Dan offers as an explanation.

 

“Yeah, I got that. Will rang me. Said you were having a bad time. Bad break up or something? Didn’t even realise you were seeing anyone.”

 

Fuck. _Fuckety, fuck, fuck, fuck._ Damn. Well, Kyle had obviously told the others which pissed him off even more, because now _he_ looked like the mentally unstable ex who can’t handle his feelings.

 

“Yeah, well now you don’t need to know.” He counters.

 

“What are you doing right now?” William asks.

 

Dan looks around him and then at the pizza menus in front of him. “Getting food?” He asks, unsure if there was a right answer to that question.

 

“Nope! Shower, get changed and I’ll be there in an hour. Oh, and none of that black shit. _Look Good!”_ and then the other end is silent as he hangs up.

 

Dan can tell how dumbstruck he must look at that moment.

 

“I don’t think I own many more colours…”

 

\---

 

An hour and a half later – because William can never be on time, even if he wanted to – he’s showered, shaved, changed and done his hair properly. He had dug out the grey skinny jeans he had worn to Sharon’s party and paired them with a white t-shirt with a deep V neck. He had done his hair up so the quiff wouldn’t move and he had black biker boots on. He heard a knock at the door and he opened it to William and his friend Lucy.

 

William was slightly older than Dan, but didn’t look a day over 26. He always blamed his wild child partying for that, even though it had been pointed out to him on a number of occasions that it should in fact do the opposite. He has short spiky dark blond hair, gelled to perfection and he’s wearing boot cut jeans, dress shoes and a light blue shirt, with the sleeves rolled up. Lucy – who Dan had met and been out with a couple of times – was younger than the two men. She was taller than both Dan and William, lean and with bright blonde hair. She was wearing a simple, but classy black cat suit with ankle boots on and carrying a diamante encrusted Michael Kors clutch bag. They both give Dan the once over and then look at each other and nod as if to say ‘ _you’ll do’_.

 

“Come on then, Dan the Man! I am here to make everything better!” William declares and pulls him out of the front door giving him only enough time to grab the essentials – wallet, phone and keys.

 

“I’m not going to G-A-Y…” Dan tries to say.

 

William looks affronted at the thought and just says, “it’s like you don’t even know me!”

 

Dan gets dragged into a bustling neon club front in Soho about 30 minutes later and William, being William, has them VIP seats and shots within moments of them stepping into it.

 

“Dan, look, alcohol, dancing and fun and you will forget about him OK?” William says in his ear. Dan looks at him and then the small shot glass and downs the spirit and gasps when the sting and taste hits the back of his mouth. Both of his companions cheer when he does it and clap him on the back for congratulations.

 

It takes him another round of shots and two beers before he finally relaxes slightly and Lucy and William drag him onto the dancefloor. It wasn’t an exclusively gay club, but he could see gay and straight couples going at it all over the dancefloor. The soundtrack was decent. It appeared to be a mix of 90’s and 2000’s dance anthems and the dancefloor hadn’t been anywhere near empty since they stepped into the place. Lucy dances forward at that point and grabs him by his shoulders.

 

“This is to relax you a bit more,” is all she says and places her lips on his. He’s surprised when this happens, but he supposes it’s the alcohol that has him deepening the kiss with the girl and pushing his tongue between her lips and teasing her own.

 

“There you go!” She says with a smile as the kiss breaks and she heads off to dance with some of the other guys who had been ogling her all night.

 

William dances to his side and simply laughs in his ear, and Dan joins him as they both start jumping and moving around to Cascada. He sees out of the corner of his eyes a guy who seemed to be tracing every move he made from his position at the bar. Dan continues to dance as he checks the guy out himself. He’s slightly taller than himself, with short slicked back dark hair. He has ice blue eyes, a dimple in his chin and has a permanent smirk at the corner of his mouth as he watches Dan’s movements like a predator.

 

 A small voice in the corner of Dan’s mind tries to make him think of Kyle when he realises, but that little voice is then shouted down by a louder one saying that Kyle didn’t want him anymore and he was a free agent.

 

He starts to make his movements more flirtatious and grinds against William as he danced by – all the while staring at the guy at the bar with a seductive look and biting his lower lip. He catches the other man’s eye in one moment and the guy starts to make his way through the crowd towards him. All of a sudden he can feel the man’s large hands on his hips mapping out Dan’s movements as he moved, and pulling him close.

 

They start grinding extremely dirtily to the next song – which just happened to be Please Don’t Stop the Music – and at the chorus the stranger spins Dan in his arms so that they are in fact face to face. This close Dan can see the coldness in the other man’s eyes which is all he needs at that moment. He doesn’t need care or safety. He wants danger and quick pleasure.

 

He moves in and greedily takes the stranger’s mouth, immediately pushing his lips apart and biting at the lower lip greedily. It is a rushed kiss with no finesse and clearly signposted exactly what Dan wanted from the other man. Tongues clash for dominance and when they break for air, Dan leans forward and whispers so he can hear him “meet me outside, I’m getting a cab,” and the other man nods and watches him leave.

 

Dan reaches outside and hails a cab as the other man stumbles out towards him. He opens the door and they both fall inside the black cab. He gives the driver his address and falls back onto the mouth of the stranger.

 

“My name’s James by the way,” the guy says in one break from the constant making out.

 

“Dan” is all he gets in reply and they’re soon heading out of the cab and up to the top floor of his building.

 

As they fall into the front door, they’re back to kissing with teeth and tongues and James is moving his hands south towards the zip and button of Dan’s jeans. As he gets the button undone and pulls the zip down, it’s like Dan all of a sudden has a bucket of cold water poured over him. He freezes and James automatically senses it.

 

“What?” He asks.

 

“I need to stop,” Dan replies, and puts his hands on the other man’s shoulder to push him away. “I need you to go.” He has this overwhelming feeling that what he was about to do was not going to help or make anything better for him.

 

“Hey, you’re the one who started this man!” The guy responds, angrily.

 

“I know, but I’m also the one who’s ending it,” Dan says firmly, opening the front door behind him to let the man get the hint and leave.

 

“Fucking cock tease! Bloody fags.” James grumbles and spits as he passes Dan to leave, slamming the door after him as he goes.

 

Dan leans up against his front door and slowly slides to the floor. He has his knees bent up to his chest and throw his head back to hit his door. He folds his arms around himself and starts to sob.

 

\---

 

Dan woke up the following morning not knowing what day of the week it was. He checked his phone to see it was in fact a Monday morning and he had really slept in.

 

There were some texts from Will and Woody asking if he was OK and one from William just hoping he had had a good night.

 

Then there were the twitter and Facebook alerts that got his attention. Kyle had set them up so that whenever the band was mentioned on Social Media he would get alerted for it. He wasn’t paying attention as to how he had done it, but he had. He opened his phone up and clicked on the links.

 

**_“Bastille’s Dan seen partying around town!”_ **

****

**_“Dan Smith from Bastille not as innocent as he seems!”_ **

****

**_“Indie Pop has a new playboy!”_ **

 

And then there were photos of him kissing Lucy in the neon lights of the club and then ones of him dragging that guy – James? – into the back of a black cab whilst looking as if he was trying to eat his face.

 

“Oh Goooood. I’m screwed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cascada song is Everytime We Touch  
> And OK, I did base James' look on Sebastian Stan...so sue me, that would be hot! x


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

 

“Have you guys seen this?” Sharon exclaims as she rushes through the door into the studio.

 

“Shaz, please I told you to wait in case Dan was in here!” Charlie retorts as he follows her into the room.

 

“He’s not, he just text to say he’s not going to be in this morning. Think he’s exhausted.” Will says. “What is it?”

 

Sharon pulls out Charlie’s phone and types a few things and hands the phone to Will and Woody. The headlines about Dan and the pixelated photos came up in all their glory.

 

“Wow, yeah Will, I think you’re right. He’s definitely exhausted.” Woody declares.

 

“Who’s exhausted?” The question comes from the doorway. Kyle carries in the coffees for everyone. Woody and Will throw Charlie’s phone back at him to try and hide it from the synth player.

 

“Dan is,” Sharon announces. “Have you not seen the news?” and throws Charlie’s phone at him.

 

Kyle picks up the phone and scrolls through the articles. His face closes off immediately at the photos and headlines. He had told the others about the break up the previous day before they had bumped into Dan so they were all aware of his newly single status.

 

“Well, at least he’s having fun…” Kyle says quietly as he hands the phone back to the couple. Sharon had the good grace to look embarrassed as she remembered what had happened.

 

“Um…sorry Kyle. I forgot.” She apologises shyly as her cheeks start to flush, and the three band members all stare at her in shock as she shuffles away to set her iPad up.

 

“She’s not as bad as you all think she is!” Charlies whispers and follows her.

 

Woody shakes his head as if to clear the craziness out of it. “Anyway, Dan texted to say he would definitely not be in this morning and he would email through a list of the songs and changes he wants us to run through. Kyle,” he says looking at the man, “he said you’d sort us out apparently cos you can navigate the changes better than me or Will?” He stops and thinks quickly and stares at Will. “Was that some sort of insult?”

 

“If he’s half as bad as he normally is after a night like that, I don’t think he’s in any fit state to be thinking up insults!” Will jests.

 

“Can’t believe he just blew this all off to get wasted…” mumbles Kyle from the corner as he loads up the changes from the email Dan has sent through. He starts throwing things out of his way and muttering more things under his breath. The others all just try and busy themselves with other things and avoid the huge elephant in the room.

 

Sharon’s phone gets a text and she jumps up announcing that her mum was there for a visit and she headed out to get her from reception.

 

“Oh, great!” shouts Kyle, “just what we _don’t_ need right now!”

 

At that, Will grabs Kyle’s left arm and Woody his right and frog marches him into the production booth and shuts the door so they can have some privacy in the soundproofed room. They roughly throw him into the chair that Dan usually used and glared at him.

 

“What?” Kyle demands, flabbergasted at the move.

 

“You can’t do this Kyle.” Will says first. “You’re the one who broke it off with him. You’re not allowed to be upset when he goes out to blow off some steam.”

 

“But at this time? We’re overloaded with changes and work…”

 

“Shaddap Kyle!” Woody says, uncharacteristically annoyed. “I’m sick of all the drama! It’s worse than school in here at the moment. I want to hit things, make money and music! That’s it, none of this crap. You did this. I’m surprised Dan didn’t give you your marching orders, but that’s not my decision!”

 

Kyle looks down at the floor and starts to count the flecks of white in the brown carpet.

 

“Stay I here for a couple of minutes and calm down. You don’t want Mrs Crazy to pick up on anything.” Will says and both the guys leave him to cool off.

 

Kyle spins in the chair to look through the large glass window. and sees that the woman and her daughter are in the studio chatting to Charlie and sees the other two join them. He spins back again so he can’t see what’s going on and rests his head back on to the chair. He can smell the faint smell of Dan’s deodorant and aftershave and he feels - again – like he has made a huge mistake with what he did. He really has no clue on how to take it back, and it appears Dan wasn’t too bothered anyway if those photos were to be believed.

 

He spins around again and catches Margaret staring at him through the window with a small half smirk on her face. “Deep breaths…” he says to himself and pulls himself out of the chair and away from the smell of home. He walks back into the lion’s den.

 

\---

 

“I don’t understand Dave! I thought you wanted us to seem accessible?!”

 

“Dan, don’t be flippant! You know I didn’t mean that.” The manager shouts down the phone. “Now you seem like a slut.”

 

“Well the girl was a friend and didn’t mean anything so you can put that out if you want?” Dan replies with a deep groan. He was still in no fit state to deal with this.

 

“I take it you and Kyle are over?” Dave asks hopefully and tactlessly. He takes Dan’s lack of response to the question as a positive and continues, “well that’s something at least.”

 

“You do know that we aren’t a boyband right?” Dan demands furiously. “No one’s gonna care who I shag!”

 

“Hey, you saw the research as much as I did.” Dave replies, trying to misdirect the singer as much as possible. He didn’t need a police investigation indirectly on his record.

 

“You know what Dave? I’m really beginning to think we don’t need your services anymore!”

 

“Hey, we have a cast iron contract Dan until the end of the summer. You’re still mine til then.” Dave shouts again.

 

“Well, let’s say I think a contract extension is well and truly off the table!” Dan shouts back and hangs up forcefully. He really wished he had a landline phone at the point because he really didn’t feel the pushing of a button expressed his emotions enough and he wanted to throw something.

 

He picks his phone up and looks at the time. It was now lunchtime and he really should get up and moving. He throws on a pair of tracksuit bottoms with zips up the legs and a Game of Thrones t-shirt. It was one of his favourites – made to look like a North Face symbol with ‘the north remembers’ written over it. He shoves his hand through his hair and heads out.

 

He stops off at the Starbucks on the way in, and makes his normal order – venti, four shot, vanilla, skinny cappuccino – and while he’s waiting for it at the bar he can feel eyes on him. He tries to ignore it, but he has a quick sweep around the café and sees a couple of college girls staring at him and giggling. They catch his eye and he gives them a shy smile in return, which makes them giggle more. His name is then shouted and he grabs his coffee to head out.

 

“Excuse me,” he hears as he passes the table.

 

“Um, yeah? Sorry, I mean, hi,” he replies looking down at them. There are three girls sitting there – two brunettes and a redhead. All relatively pretty and very young.

 

“Are you Dan Smith?” and the giggling starts again. Dan just nods in reply. “Can I give you my number?” the redhead asks.

 

“Um, no I don’t think so.” Dan replies politely, with a small smile and a nod of the head.

 

The redhead looks embarrassed at that. “Oh...” she stutters, “I thought, with those photos and everything…”

 

“Oh,” Dan feels sorry for her and eventually interrupts while crouching down at the table. “No, um,” he starts. _Fuck it_ , he thinks. “I was having a difficult day…my partner has only just broken up with me so, you know, bit of a rebound thing…”

 

“Oh _no_!” comes a round of sympathy from the girls and they all offer him general platitudes and apologies.

 

Dan eventually manages to get away from the clucking girls, after they apologise and then he apologises again. The door shuts behind him and he starts rushing to get to the studio.

 

\---

 

He manages to get there 20 minutes later and he waves at Katie as he races past. He has his headphones on and is listening to Bon Jovi again to try and get rid of his rage. He climbs the stairs and walks towards the familiar door. He pushes it open without looking up and walks in, throwing his bag in the corner as he goes, completely on auto pilot. He fishes his phone put of his pocket to turn off the music and pulls his headphones off.

 

He watches through the window into the studio and can see 6 people in there. One of them - Sharon’s mother – is just sitting with a judging look on her face. Kyle is walking around trying to get Sharon and Charlie harmonising for Snakes and Dan catches himself smiling despite himself when he sees it. Will is strumming a beat and Woody is hitting the bass drum, but looking the most bored Dan has seen him for a while. He flips a switch in the booth and he’s able to hear all the sounds coming from them. They sound good. He’s proud of his changes and Kyle seems to be getting through it with no problems.

 

He watches as Margaret makes some notes on her phone and she seems to be recording some bits as well. When he sees that he really isn’t happy, and he makes a mental note to check her phone before she leaves, as this is legally his music and he just likes the fact he would be able to do that to that woman.

 

It then crosses his mind that he should maybe check Facebook for this woman. He types the name Margaret Philps into the search bar and she comes up immediately. He clicks on her name and scrolls through her statuses. One in particular jumps out at him.

 

_“My beautiful and talented daughter will be singing with a band this summer! Keep an eye out, she’ll be making waves!”_

 

And he noticed one of the replies to a comment from her was:

 

_“With my help she’ll be lead singer in no time!”_

 

He flips the switch to the booth off, and quietly leaves – unsure what exactly he is able to do with this information.

 

\---

 

The next day is the magazine interview and photoshoot for Sharon before she heads back to do her A-Level Music exam. They all have to be there for the photoshoot, even though the interview is for the girl alone and so they all arrive separately at the location for 9am to get ready.

 

They are all split into groups for their hair and wardrobe to be chosen and unfortunately Dan and Kyle are in a pair on their own. It is the first time they have interacted with each other since the photos were posted online, and there is silence between the two which was so tense it could be cut with a knife.

 

They get put into matching black jeans and converses and both have t-shirts with checked shirts over the top which are left unbuttoned. For previous shoots, Dan and Kyle have been known as the two who will have fun and make it easy for everyone, which is why at the beginning, the photographer decides he wants to do a few shots with just the two of them.

 

Dan rolls his eyes and wants to say no, but he eventually agrees to it.

 

“Alright guys!” the photographer shouts. “Let’s just get some natural shots of you two yeah?”

 

The boys just stand there with their hands in their pockets, unsure exactly what the guy wants.

 

“Come on guys! Arms around shoulders and stuff yeah? Laughing maybe?”

 

Dan and Kyle both shrug their shoulders and continue to stand in the same position. Woody comes to their rescue – in a way – and barges over and whispers something to the photographer. He then walks over to them and says;

 

“There’s a room next door. Go and talk this out!” and pushes them forcefully out of the door.

 

They make their way into what looks like a dumping ground for clothes or a dressing room and turn to look at each other.

 

“What?” Dan starts. “I don’t know why you’re pissed at me!”

 

“Well clearly we didn’t mean as much as you claimed we did!”

 

“What the fuck Kyle?” Dan shouts and turns away from him in frustration. “You have no right to be pissed with me! YOU broke up with ME!” He shouts again, echoing what Woody had told him the previous day.

 

“I know I did! But seriously? 24 hours and you’re riding someone else’s dick?!”

 

Dan glares at him when he says that. “You really think that little of me?”

 

“Well, you sucked face with that guy heading into a taxi, what am I meant to think?”

 

“Why the fuck do you even care? You said it, a good run! Go back to the way it was you said! Well I was trying to do that. And even though it’s nothing to do with you, I didn’t sleep with the guy. I went home and threw him out! _Some people_ can’t just turn off their feelings!”

 

“You didn’t sleep with him?” Kyle asks quietly.

 

“No! I didn’t! But why do you even care Kyle! You don’t love me!”

 

“I broke up with you Dan, I didn’t stop loving you!” Kyle exclaims.

 

“What?’ Dan asks, his forehead furrowed in confusion. His expression suddenly changes to shock as he finds himself being pushed backwards towards the wall and held there while the younger man’s lips find his in a hungry wanting kiss. Dan can’t help himself and a small whimper comes from the back of his throat. Their mouths slot together like two pieces of a whole and Kyle’s tongue attacks Dan’s mouth forcing the lips apart so he can gain access. He swipes along Dan’s teeth, tasting his morning coffee and then starts to relearn the man’s entire mouth in case something had changed in the days they had been apart.

 

Then as suddenly as it starts, Kyle jumps away as if he’s been electrocuted. “We can’t, Dan.” Is all he says when Dan gives him a questioning look.

 

“Sharon’s mother is going to the police if we don’t stop this.” He explains. “Dave told me to break up with you.” He admits.

 

“That must be what she meant.” Dan says in reply, and explains the Facebook messages he had seen.

 

“I still have no plan Dan,” Kyle says. “But I can’t be apart from you.”

 

“Well then,” Dan says with a smirk. “How about we play along for a while?” and Kyle slowly smirks back at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No real notes today! Just thanks for reading still x


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So just a quick message - if anyone is reading from Manchester I hope you and yours are safe and well, and condolences if you are affected in any way. This world is turning into a mad house. 
> 
> No warnings for this chapter. Please enjoy x

Chapter Twenty One

 

Kyle and Dan leave the room and head back onto the photo set. Kyle winks at Dan quickly before shouting loudly,

 

“Right, let’s just get this over with then. The quicker we’re done the quicker we leave.”

 

“Excellent idea. Best one you’ve had.” Dan replies acidly and walks to the other side of the room, as far away from Kyle as he can get. He heads towards Woody, who just glares at him.

 

“You were supposed to sort things out man.” He says with a tone of disappointment. “It’s not gonna go well for us if you two are constantly arguing.”

 

“Hey! I can be professional.” Dan shrugs. “I just don’t have to like the guy to do my job. All he does is sit in the background and do nothing anyway.”

 

Will wanders over to them. “Well I see you’ve both got to the anger stage…” he observes, which earns him a glare from Dan and an almost identical one from Kyle from the other side of the room. “Hey mate, don’t think you’re gonna get photos of them alone, so how do you want to play this?”

 

It’s eventually decided that they take some photos of the four guys together, Sharon on her own and then all of them as a group shot with Charlie as well seeing as he was there. The photographer learns his lesson and lines them up with Dan in the middle with Woody and Will either side of him and then Kyle on the other side of Woody, in order to avoid any more conflict. He takes some serious ones, posed ones and then some ones with their arms thrown over each other’s shoulders.

 

It was during this more intimate one that Dan felt a hand slide down his back and grab his ass. The smile captured during that photo was one of the most genuine smiles he had that day.

 

Sharon had her interview performed by one of the newer journalists for the magazine. Her name was Rebecca and it was really just a simple fluff piece about how she got into the touring side and what her experience was. Dan was very happy that she didn’t say anything about the ongoing blackmail or problems between them. In fact, she only said very nice things about them all which did surprise him.

 

As the photographer was resetting the set for the shoot with the six of them, Dan was sitting alone helping himself to coffee and snacks from the table that had been provided for them. Kyle had headed outside for a ‘calming cigarette’ and the guys had gone with him to make sure he was OK. He was in a world of his own watching the set guys move lights and props around and didn’t realise when the chair next to him moved and someone sat down.

 

“Hi,” comes a small voice form next to him, shocking him back to the present.

 

“Oh hey. You OK?” He asks Sharon as she sips a cup of tea.

 

“Yeah,” she says shyly. Dan looks at her and isn’t quite sure what he sees there. It looked to be something like vulnerability, but he isn’t sure. It’s definitely a look he hasn’t seen on the girl before. “It’s really intense,” she adds.

 

“Yeah, you get used to it.” Dan offers in response with a small smile.

 

“Dan…” she starts and the man looks at her again. “I just want to say sorry, y’know, for what I did.” Dan raises his eyebrows as she says it as if he can’t believe what he’s hearing. “I know it’s not an excuse, but my mum kind of made me do it when she found out that Ella was your sister. She’s obsessed with me ‘making it’ because she never had the chance to.” Dan nods as she speaks. “And I just want to say sorry about what happened with you and Kyle…”

 

“I’m sorry, Sharon. I really don’t want to talk about that with you,” Dan interrupts suddenly. Even if the lovers hadn’t just had that talk he wouldn’t want to speak to the girl about it after everything that had happened. She just nods and they go back to sitting in a companionable silence until the others come back in.

 

Before they head off after Sharon’s photo shoot, Rebecca corners Dan to ask what was going on between him and Kyle and whether it had anything to do with the photos of Dan which had been released.

 

“Nah, creative differences.” Is all Dan says as he heads out.

 

\---

 

They take two separate black cabs back to the studio. Even though Sharon was heading back to take her exams later that day, Dan needed to have them practice one more song, or at least give her the information for it before she went. After his small chat with the girl, he felt a lot more comfortable taking the car journey with her compared to how he knew Kyle would have been if he had been made to, so he gets in the car with Sharon and Charlie.

 

Keeping up appearances, neither of the men had talked to each other during the rest of the shoot and interview and any glances that were made to each other were kept to ones that would be seen as either longing or frustration by other people. It didn’t take much to feel frustrated on Dan’s part. That kiss had just stoked all the fire he had inside for Kyle and all he wanted to do was ravage him and hold him.

 

Getting back to the studio first he headed in and pulled out his laptop to get the sheet music and lyrics downloaded for everyone. He had decided to introduce a four-part harmony for Warmth, and in his wisdom – or possibly drunken haze, let’s be honest in the past couple of weeks it could be either – he had decided to leave this song to last.

 

He announces the plan for the song as everyone comes in and he is met with a whole load of groans from the band members, while Sharon just looked at them all.

 

“He has these crazy ideas some times,” Will explains. “Dan, you know it never ends well.”

 

“The choir was an awesome idea.” Dan replies defensively. “You’re just jealous you didn’t think of it,” he mutters

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Woody says. “You’re a musical Einstein.” Kyle grumbles at this and everyone looks at him because they can’t hear what he says. “Don’t worry, Kyle. You’re a genius too,” Woody adds. He looks at the others and mouths, “geez!”

 

“Nah, guys I’m heading out,” Kyle announces.

 

“Kyle! I need you here to practice this,” Dan admonishes quickly.

 

“Dan, I helped write the song. Email me what you want. I’m sure I’ll pick it up,” he says flippantly as he walks past and the door slams as he leaves.

 

“Well this is all going swimmingly!” Charlie jokes from behind the guitar he’s tuning, and gets a bitch face from Dan for the comment.

 

They had an hour or so to get the basics down before Sharon had to leave. Margaret appeared at one point to pick her up and decided to take her normal position on Dan’s chair in the corner of the room. They completed as much as they could and everyone started packing up. They had decided to take the next day off for a rest as Sharon wasn’t going to be there. As people were milling around and getting things sorted Dan headed over to his piano and sat down.

 

He started playing the intro for Oblivion and started quietly singing as everyone was finishing up and ignoring him.

 

“My god, you really must have the spotlight all the time don’t you?” Comes an astonished voice from next to him. As it gave him a shock he did hit a few wrong keys before exasperatedly looking into the older woman’s face.

 

“What?” Dan asks.

 

“Well, it’s the day before my Sharon’s exam and all you can do is sit here and sing a dreary song! You could at least be offering her advice, or comfort!”

 

“Well, first,” he starts, “I’ll try not to take that personally. Secondly, I think Charlie’s been with her every night so I’m sure he’s been helping with her performance and composition stuff. And probably the comfort stuff too…”

 

“Well I suppose you’ve been getting enough comfort from other places recently as well haven’t you,” she replies sarcastically. “It’s such a shame you and your trained monkey didn’t work out.” Dan rolls his eyes at her and can feel the tips of his ears getting red as he gets angrier. Suddenly her tone changes as she leans forward into his ear. “Although, I’m sure my daughter could help you make it better…” and she pulls back and gives him a knowing look.

 

“Seriously?! When will everyone get it into their head? I’m _GAY_!” He shouts, and just stares at her until Woody comes and interrupts them. Dan picks up his jacket and back pack and walks towards the door stopping at Sharon on the way out. “She wants me to give you advice. Here’s my advice - get away from that poisonous bitch,” he spits at the girl and walks out.

 

\---

 

He heads out into the start of rush hour on the London streets. It’s a muggy May day, and Dan’s very happy that he’s only wearing a light jacket. He can see the grey clouds gathering though threatening rain on the horizon. He thinks it might be time for a thunderstorm considering the heat and looks forward to it.

 

He puts his headphones over his head and presses play on the Spotify app. Coldplay and the Chainsmokers start filling his ears and the he opens a new message. He still hadn’t saved Sharon’s number into his phone, so he starts a message to Charlie.

 

_Dan – hey man, go and wish Sharon good luck for tomorrow will you?_

_Charlie – will do. Everything OK?_

_Dan – yeah. Woman pissed me off. –_ then he thinks and adds for good measure _– Kyle pissed me off. Just gonna have to deal._

 

_Charlie – OK I get it. You want me to speak to Kyle?_

_Dan – if you want. It won’t change anything I’m sure. Focus on your girl. See you in a couple of days._

He smiles at the thought of little Charlie trying to stage an intervention, then remembered what he was like when he thought Dan had hit on Sharon and realised he could be pretty terrifying if he wanted to. ‘It must be the Yorkshire in him’ he thinks and chuckles to himself.

 

He’s halfway home when he decides he’s going to text Kyle.

 

_Dan – so you walked out of practice…_

 

There’s a couple of minutes before there’s a text back. Dan cycles through his music on his playlist while he’s waiting. The reply comes while he’s waiting for the green man at traffic lights.

 

_Kyle – so? what are you going to do about it?_

_Dan – some sort of punishment would normally be in order._

_Kyle – promises, promises_

He gets the last message as he’s opening his building’s main door. He climbs up his stairs, gasping by the time he gets to the top. He pulls his keys out of his pocket.

 

“Seriously? I can jump around and sing for like two hours straight and I can’t climb four flights of stairs?” he mutters as he unlocks the door and throws his bag into the corner in front of him.

 

“You know talking to yourself is the first sign of madness right?” A familiar voice comes from the sofa.

 

Dan stops in his tracks and looks into the warm dark eyes of the young man. He stares and takes in everything about the smiling face looking back at him. The way the moustache is _just so_. How well manicured the beard is. How his hair is slightly long on top and some strands have escaped the rest and are hanging around his face. The lines next to his eyes as he smiles and now, how his brow is slightly furrowing as Dan stands there saying nothing.

 

“How…how did you get in?” Dan manages to get out.

 

“For a ‘musical Einstein’ you really are stupid! You gave me a key like two years ago remember?”

 

He did remember now. He had given Kyle, Will and Woody all a key in case of emergencies. He had no idea what exact emergency that would be, but felt safe doing it.

 

“Hey, it’s _musical_ Einstein for a reason…” he replies, blushing.

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Kyle dismisses. He slowly and gracefully stands from the low sofa. It was so old, nearly all of the stuffing had been compacted into something harder, but Dan didn’t want to get a new one. “So, I’ve got a bone to pick with you,” he states as he stalks forward toward the singer.

 

“Huh?” Dan says, completely distracted by the fluid body movements of the other man moving towards him.

 

“Uh-huh,” he nods as he moves closer. “So I just sit at the back and do nothing huh?” He moves so that he is now directly in front of Dan, barely an inch between them. Dan swallows loudly.

 

“You heard that huh?” He asks, as Kyle circumnavigates him to stand very close behind him.

 

“Yup,” he pops the ‘p’ directly into Dan’s ear, and he can’t stop the shiver that goes down his spine as he feels the facial hair brush against the shell of his ear. Suddenly two strong arms grab around his waist and pulls him flush against the lean man behind him. Dan gasps at the contact and moans loudly as Kyle grinds against his ass, rubbing his hard dick against the other man’s backside.

 

Dan could feel his own cock slowly filling up and getting half hard purely at the words and movements of Kyle, and as soon as he felt the other’s arousal he became fully hard. Kyle moves his hand down over Dan’s clothed prick and felt the hardness there. He presses down firmly to give the older man more friction as he grinds away behind him. Dan whimpers at the touch and starts to plead for more.

 

Kyle starts nipping at his neck – gently so as not to leave any tell-tale marks – and licking downwards towards the collar of Dan’s t-shirt. Dan tries to turn around to get more of him, but Kyle’s lean arms keep him in place. Kyle’s hands speed up and start cupping at the front of Dan’s jeans faster as he ruts quicker behind him.

 

“God I’ve missed you baby,” he whispers sensually into Dan’s ear. “I’m so sorry…god, this feels so good!”

 

Dan can’t form words as the younger man speeds up faster and faster and he can feel his release racing towards him as Kyle starts moaning behind him. As soon as he feels the man behind him still and groan as he comes, he releases his own excitement and spills into his own boxers.

 

They both groan together and lean against each other as their legs start to feel weak. Kyle finally lets Dan turn around and look at him. He looks up into the brown eyes of his best friend and leans forward to kiss him slowly and softly.

 

As the pull away and lean their foreheads against each other, Kyle places a tiny kiss on the tip of Dan’s nose.

 

“So,” Dan says first and Kyle looks deeply into the blue eyes with expectation. “You’ve got some practising to make up for,” and Kyle makes a huffing sound as Dan chuckles and they pull away from each other.

 

“You know if I go back in next and know this off by heart they’ll suspect something…” He tries to argue.

 

“Nope! No excuse. C’mon handsome, we can practise in the shower…you know the acoustics are always better in there anyway!” and he drags Kyle towards the bathroom.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone interested in what is exactly involved in A-level music here you go https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/A-Level_Music
> 
> Chainsmokers and Coldplay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnFWB1K2eEQ
> 
> Please comment if you are so inclined! x


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! This is a much smaller chapter today, but hopefully it will add to the story. Please enjoy.

Chapter Twenty Two

The men had a slow sensual shower together – they didn’t do any singing, their mouths were otherwise occupied for the entire time they were in the bathroom. They finally depleted Dan’s hot water tank and had to extricate themselves from the room and get dry. Dan did want Kyle to at least look at the harmonies he had planned so he refused any more touching or kissing until he had done that.

 

Kyle borrowed a pair of pyjama bottoms from Dan and made his way into the living room while Dan got changed. He was lying on the sofa with his legs up and one arm folded casually behind his neck reading a piece of paper when Dan wandered in.

 

“Why do you still have that?” Kyle asks incredulously.

 

Dan was dressed in a onesie with a skeleton on the front. It was from a gig they had done on Halloween a few years earlier and they had all worn them. He looks down at himself, puts his arms out and spins for his boyfriend.

 

“What? I like it, its comfy!” He eyes Kyle and moves over to the sofa. He places his knees either side of the other man and lays himself down so that he lying on top of him with his head on Kyle’s bare chest.

 

He reaches over to the coffee table and picks up the remote to turn the TV on and watch whatever rubbish he could find. Kyle brings his arm down to stroke Dan’s hair while he was still studying the music on the paper and Dan hums in happiness.

 

“I know it’s only been a few days apart, but I really missed you.” Dan says quietly.

 

“Mmm?” Kyle responds. “I’m an idiot.”

 

“No arguments here.” And with that Kyle puts the pages on top of Dan’s head so he can’t see the television. Dan huffs and the pages move slightly with the breath, causing Kyle to chuckle to himself.

 

There’s a knock at the door and both of the men look up in surprise and then at each other.

 

“Shit!” Dan exclaims quietly. “Who is it?” He shouts a bit louder.

 

“Dan, it’s Dave. We need to talk.” Kyle looks at Dan with a confused look on his face.

 

“Does he come round often?” Kyle whispers, and Dan just shakes his head furiously.

 

“OK, hang on, just got out of the shower!” Dan shouts to stall him. He jumps off the sofa and pulls Kyle up with him. “Quick, bedroom and hide!” He whispers furiously, and Kyle meanders slowly into the other room purposefully to annoy the singer. As soon as the bedroom door shuts, Dan turns to the front door and opens it to his manager. Dave walks fast through the door on a mission.

 

Dave was a large man. Dan always felt like if you put the entire band together and stood next to him, he would still be wider than the group. He looked flushed and out of breath after walking up the stairs even after having stood outside for a minute. The sweat was starting to fell down his cheeks and into the smattering of a dark goatee he had on his chin.

 

“What’s with the house call Dave?” Dan asks bitingly. They hadn’t spoken since he hung up on him and wasn’t too pleased that he was now standing in his front room.

 

“I got a call from the reported you had your photo shoot with today. She said that you and Kyle weren’t getting on and it was causing tension.”

 

“Yeah. I told her it was creative differences.” Dan responds.

 

Dave says nothing for a moment and just looks at him. “What?” Dan asks.

 

“Do you seriously have a death wish for your career? Saying that to a journalist is like waving a red flag at a bull! They’ll make up anything now! She rang to say she would be running another story about your ‘feud’” Dave says exasperatedly and actually used air quotes.

 

“Dave, it’s Digital Spy…it’s not like they like us anyway and most people are only on it for soap gossip! We’ll be a footnote!” Dan says non-commitally. “Dave, don’t be so dramatic. It’s not like you’ll be around for the fallout anyway. Like I said, we’ll be looking for new representation when the contract runs out…”

 

Dave growls out loud and turns around and heads for the door angrily. He pulls it open and Dan catches it before it swings shut and looks out after him.

 

“Good talk Dave!” he shouts and shuts the door behind him. He turns around and Kyle is standing at the door of the bedroom.

 

“Why _did_ you say that to her?” he asks.

 

“To shit stir.” Dan says simply. Kyle rolls his eyes and pulls the other man into the bedroom to have his way with him.

 

\---

 

They’re lying lazily in Dan’s bed the following morning, Dan lying on top of Kyle again and stroking his chest and kissing his abs.

 

“Can we stay here all day? It’s not like we have to be anywhere,” Kyle asks Dan sleepily.

 

“I wish! I’ve got a dentist appointment, hair appointment and I’m going out for lunch. Lucky me,” he says sarcastically, and Kyle pouts at him. Dan looks up at him and leans up to bite at his lower lip.

 

“Who are you going out to lunch with?” Kyle asks.

 

“My uncle. It’s his birthday. Apparently I have been nominated to go and get annoyed by him and his family this year.” Dan grouses.

 

Kyle sympathises and strokes his head again and leans forward for a gentle kiss. Kyle’s phone dings then and he has a quick look at the message.

 

_Charlie – Kyle have you seen the news? Fans are upset you and Dan are arguing. Get it sorted._

Kyle laughs loudly and hands the message to Dan. “Wow, guess that story broke,” he says looking at it, and he flicks into twitter to look.

 

_“No! Not Dyle! @bastilledan and @kyle_jsimmons”_

_“Well Dan can’t go so guess it will be @kyle_jsimmons”_

_“This is actually making me sad :( @bastilledan“_

The headline from the website reads – **Trouble in Paradise! Bastille Duo set to Break Up?**

“Well…you definitely stirred the shit there Dan!” Dan smirked at the other man and cocked his eyebrow. “You’ve got something planned!” Kyle gasps in realisation.

 

Dan says nothing and just gets out of bed to get ready for the day.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed. Please comment to make me write faster!!! x


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry...so writer's block is real! Who knew?!
> 
> Hope this is OK x

Chapter Twenty Three

Dan’s day goes pretty much as planned – hands in his mouth at the dentist and hands in his hair at the salon. Then an extremely awkward lunch with his uncle, aunt and cousins at Harrods – which Dan somehow ends up paying for, after his uncle pleads poverty in the same breath as talking about renovating his million-pound country house. But at least it meant he didn’t have to get a present.

 

He had had the awkward conversation with his un-liked family about the photos they had seen online and he had to make up some excuse about how drunk he had been and it had all been a mistake. There were also some not very well veiled references about how his singing career looked to be ending soon with all the fighting going on in house.

 

“Seriously,” he says, “it’s all hear say. We’re fine.” Is all he gives away to his family.

 

He heads back to the flat after the lunch texting with Kyle all the way.

 

_Kyle – Had a phone call with Charlie. I’ve had my orders to make things up with you_

_Dan – lol. You scared?_

_Kyle – for a small, unassuming guy he’s pretty tough!_

_Kyle – you gonna tell me yet?_

_Dan – nope_

 

He felt pretty bad throwing him out that morning with no explanation about his plan, but Dan knew that the whole thing would have more impact and work better if absolutely no one knew what was going to happen.

 

Halfway home he gets a message from Woody asking him to meet up with him to help him shop for the weekend. They had finally got all the information from Dave for the weekend, and it appeared that Cornwall was desperately trying to become the new festival destination as that’s where they were heading to. Dan reluctantly agrees and responds saying he’ll meet him at the tube station and changes to the Victoria line to get there. He spends the entire journey fully expecting to get the same talk from the drummer.

 

\---

 

Woody’s standing at the top of the escalator at their normal meeting place by the time Dan gets there. He’s holding a bottle of water out to Dan as he sees him come up towards him.

 

“Thanks mate,” Dan says, taking the water and downing it like it’s the first drink he’s had all day. “It’s like a sauna down there today. What are you needing?”

 

“Shorts. Trainers. Vests.” Woody replies shortly, and Dan just looks at him.

 

“Woody, you just named your entire wardrobe. Why do you need more? And you like emptied the US of their entire vest stock when we were over there.”

 

“OK…maybe it was a ruse to get you here,” he says slowly, and at that Dan rolls his eyes and starts to walk away from him. “Dan! Mate, wait, please!” Woody shouts after him, and a few tourists look around to see what the fuss is about. They lose interest quickly when all they see nothing exciting is happening.

 

Dan brings the heels of his hands up to his eyes, presses them in tightly and takes a deep breath. He runs his hands through his newly cut hair and turns round to look at Woody again.

 

“Fine, let’s get this over with.” He relents finally. Even though he knew that this was all going to be over soon, it was not fun having to put his friends through his and Kyle’s current façade.

 

“I’m starved, I need food,” Woody says and pulls Dan towards Five Guys which they just so happen to be standing outside of. “Want anything?”

 

“Diet Coke, I just had lunch and had to take a second mortgage out to pay for it,” Dan says sarcastically. When Woody gives him a questioning look he just says, “long story, don’t worry about it.”

 

Dan head over to find a booth that was a secluded as it could be for the busy burger bar, and waited for the drummer to come back with his food and drinks. He picks up free monkey nuts on the way past, just so he could do something with his hands while the anticipated awkward conversation was going to take place.

 

The shaggy haired drummer gets to the table with his tray piled with a burger, hot dog, fries and drinks and Dan stares open mouthed as he digs in. After a while, Woody stops filling his face and looks at Dan again.

 

“So. We saw the other article that Rebecca wrote.”

 

“It’s all crap Wood. All I said was ‘creative differences’ and she took the rest from there! What would you rather I have said? ‘Kyle broke up with me so I got shit faced and pulled some random guy and now he’s pissed off?’ I don’t think that would have been much better!”

 

Woody shrugged in reluctant agreement at that, and crunched on a French fry thoughtfully.

 

“Is it gonna be a problem this weekend?”

 

“I hope not,” Dan says quietly, as if he’s thinking about it. “As long as we both stay professional about things it’ll be fine. There might not be a lot of laughs though.” Woody nods again and thinks about that.

 

“We don’t have enough time to change sets or how we do things. You’ll both just have to deal and not let anyone see it. Will, Charlie and me have all said we do what we normally do and sod you guys.”

 

“Fair enough.” Dan agrees. He could see that the drummer was getting really upset and that did make him upset too. Woody was always the joker of them all, but he was also the one who took everything so personally.

 

“Sharon’s mum is coming with us this weekend by the way,” Woody then adds. “Charlie text me to tell me. She’s coming down in the minibus.”

 

“Fan-fucking-tastic.” Is all Dan has to say to that, but in his head he thinks that couldn’t be better. “You finished?” Dan then asks and looks at the remains of the humungous meal the drummer had to himself.

 

“Yup!” Woody replies, looking very pleased with himself. Dan shakes his head in disbelief and picks his drink up.

 

“Cool, let’s go and get you your shopping then,” And they both get up and head out of the restaurant.

 

\---

 

Dan finally gets home at around 7pm, absolutely exhausted after shopping the length of Oxford Street with Woody. He had bought a couple of shirts, hats and pairs of trainers, but not nearly as much as the drummer, who seemed to think his entire wardrobe needed an overhaul - so he now had a nearly exact replica of everything he already owned, but in a slightly different colour.

 

He collapses through his front door and half expects to see Kyle there waiting for him again. He starts to get emotional when he realises he’s alone. He throws his purchases in the bedroom to look at and pack later and heads into the kitchen to start cooking something for his dinner.

 

His food is cooking away when he hears the familiar ringtone coming from the table in the living room and Dan rushes quickly through to answer it, vaulting a few magazines to get there. He picks up his phone and hits the accept button and a gorgeous familiar smile lights up his small screen.

 

“Hey!” he says and smiles broadly.

 

“Hey you!” comes the reply. “What are you doing?”

 

“Not much. I’m cooking dinner.” Dan answers.

 

“Wow,” Kyle looks jealous. “A rocking bod, a great singer and he can cook! That’s like the relationship trifecta!” He jokes.

 

Dan sticks his tongue out to him as he carries the phone back towards the kitchen so his food doesn’t burn. “Its chilli. This is literally the easiest thing in the world to cook.” And he turns his camera around so he can see it bubbling away.

 

“Don’t play it down for me! I can see the next Gordon Ramsay in the making there.” Dan glares at him through the phone and Kyle chuckles again.

 

“Where are you?” Dan asks, feeling the fact his other half isn’t there with him surprisingly hard, even though they’re meant to be broken up.

 

“Up at my parents. They rang cos they saw the news and they want to make sure I’m OK and there’s nothing they can help with.” Kyle replies apologetically and Dan can see the backdrop now as being Kyle’s childhood bedroom. Kyle’s parents lived about as far away as Dan’s but in the other direction, so he really wouldn’t be seeing him til tomorrow now.

 

There’s another silence after that and Dan suddenly becomes self-conscious. He knows he doesn’t look fantastic at that moment and he’s feeling even more guilty about what he’s planning the more other people are affected.

 

“Don’t do that,” Kyle says.

 

“Do what?” Dan asks.

 

“Doubt yourself! We’re doing this for a reason Dan. We’re gonna get them off of our backs once and for all and if you’ve got a way to even start doing that, I’m all in and so will everyone else be when they find out.

 

Dan looks down again. “I wish you could hold me.”

 

Dan looks up after he says it and he can see that Kyle’s eyes have dilated slightly as he’s staring at him down the phone, a playful smile on his lips. “Yeah?” He asks. “What would we be doing if I was there?” Kyle asks.

 

Dan starts at that. Was he really suggesting what he thought he was? He looks up through his eyelashes and sees Kyle sitting patiently waiting for him to respond. ‘ _Fuck it_ ,’ Dan thinks, slowly lowers himself down onto his sofa and relaxes.

 

“Well…I would definitely be lying you back on this sofa here. And telling you that you must be far too warm in what you’re wearing…” Dan starts.

 

“Yeah? So you would what? Make me take my top off like this?” And with that Kyle pulls his t-shirt off and Dan can see his bare chest on the screen.

 

“That seems like better attire for what I would be suggesting, yeah…” Dan replied, “and obviously I wouldn’t want you to be alone…” and Dan pulls off his shirt and relaxes back onto his sofa, making sure that Kyle could see him. “Then I would undo your trousers…”

 

“Really? That is presumptuous of you Mr Smith!” Kyle mocks gently, but he does it anyway, angling the camera downward to show Dan what he was doing. “And obviously I would want to do the same thing to you as well…you know, so you’re not alone.”

 

“Oh in the interests of keeping each other company I think I could handle that,” Dan says in all seriousness. Dan then moves the phone to the end of the sofa where he knew he could get a good angle of himself and he hears a groan coming from iPhone.

 

“Do you have any idea how good you look just now?” Kyle asks him. And Dan in fact did have a good idea. He was lying back with his jeans undone and his fully hard cock in his hand with his legs slung open. He was gently stroking his own dick and shyly looking into the camera.

 

To be fair, Kyle looked just as good in Dan’s opinion. He looked half wrecked already and he was settling his phone on the bedside table while he sat back on the bed. His legs were on the floor, but his length was also out and in his hand. They both started rubbing at themselves and giving each other as much encouragement they could muster. Dan started shutting his eyes as his excitement grew and all he could hear was Kyle chanting;

 

“That’s right baby, so good for me baby. Right there,” and then gasping.

 

Dan was just groaning by this point. He was stroking himself the way he liked it with a slight twist at the head and he was thumbing himself over the slit on every third swipe making himself gasp at the feeling. He could feel the heat pooling in his stomach ad he could feel his balls starting to rise up and all he can hear himself say is; “I’m so close, I’m coming babe, I’m coming,” and his seed spills into his hand in long thick ribbons. Coming down from his high he can hear Kyle also coming with his own orgasm and he grabs his phone to watch the bliss and pleasure cover the other man’s face as he comes. He finds the entire sight beautiful and highly arousing, but there was no way he could go again this quickly.

 

“So that was new…” Dan says when the silence had carried on for a couple of minutes.

 

“No, that was amazing!” Kyle says. His dark hair moved into awkward positions because of the way he had been relaxed on the bed. His eyes sparkled as his boyish grin lit up the screen again and Dan couldn’t help but feel so lucky that this man had chosen him.

 

Dan grabbed tissues from the table next to him with one hand and cleaned himself up. Once he’d done that he grabbed his phone again and looked deeply at the man he loved.

 

“You’re coming to practice tomorrow aren’t you?” He clarifies, and Kyle just nods down the phone. “Good. Woody had ‘the talk’ with me today. Maybe we should try being a little less hostile tomorrow?”

 

“Oh I don’t know…that singer I work with is a real piece of work…” and Dan flips him off down the camera.

 

“I love you Ky,” Dan says quietly.

 

“I love you too babe.” Kyle responds.

 

All Dan can think of is that weekend and how everything has got to change when he does what he’s planning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Please let me know x


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another one for you guys. Nearly at the end. Not too sure how many chapters are left : (

Chapter Twenty Four

Dan finds himself up and packing at 5:30am the following morning. He can’t sleep at all because of the anticipation of what is to come this weekend so he’s throwing clothes into a backpack for him to grab and take with him when they head down later that day.

 

They were due to play the main stage on the Sunday afternoon, but because they had to get Sharon all set up and run through properly they had to make it down earlier than they would normally. If it was just the five of them they probably would have turned up in the morning after Coop and the crew had already set them up, sing and leave. However, with Sharon completing the entire festival season with them it was decided between all of them that her first gig should be done slowly and thoroughly.

 

He makes sure he has everything he needs for the weekend and throws the bag at the front door. He heads back to his bed and realises he has a text sitting waiting for him.

 

_Charlie – Sharon wants to know what she should be wearing this weekend._

_Dan – whatever she wants as long as she doesn’t look like a hooker._

 

He realises after he sends the message that that could come over as slightly harsh, but hey, it wasn’t even dawn so he felt he would be able to get away with it.

 

_Dan – I would suggest jeans and a t-shirt like the rest of us._

He decides to add to make it a bit friendlier. He jumps back into bed, pulls up his laptop and starts work for the day.

 

\---

 

Dan had made sure they all knew they had to get to practice early that day as they were getting the minibus at 3pm in order to get to Cornwall at a reasonable time. It was a good 4-hour trip to get there so it was going to be a long and tiring journey for them all. Dave had decided it would be a good team building exercise for them to drive down instead of any faster transport and nearly everyone was dreading the time cooped up in the small vehicle.

 

However, despite having been up early that morning, by the time he had made it to the studio Dan was an hour later than everyone else. Someone had organised things so that when he did walk through the door they were all practising Warmth and their new harmonies for the song.

 

“Sounds good guys,” he praises once there’s a break in the music.

 

“Nice of you to join us, esteemed leader,” Kyle mutters sarcastically from the corner and Charlie gives him a warning look to shut him up. Dan has to stop himself from laughing when he sees it.

 

“Sorry I’m late. Got coffee though,” he offers in a peace offering.

 

“Do you have blood in your veins, Dan?” Sharon seriously asks, taking a cup from the tray and moving to sit beside him.

 

“I live exclusively on caffeine and diet coke,” Dan replies in all seriousness. He checks himself quickly in the way his attitude has so drastically changed towards this girl over the past couple of weeks. Instead of hating her, he actually felt sorry for her. She now worked extremely hard to do what he asked of her and she had chilled so much. He couldn’t decide whether it was Charlie’s influence or getting her away from her mother that had done it, but since the photo shoot he kind of saw her as another Ella, and wanted to keep her safe. Admittedly he couldn’t trust her as far as he could throw her still, but he wanted to be nice to her.

 

“How was the exam?” he asks conversationally. She was a good singer, and had improved since working with them so he hoped that she had done well.

 

“It went alright I think. Just have to wait til August now.” She says and goes quiet again.

 

“You think you’re OK for this weekend? If there’s anything you want to go over again just let us know, we want this to be good too you know so we don’t want to throw you under the bus.” Dan wants to make sure she is completely confident in all aspects of what is expected of her so that at least one thing can go right.

 

“I just think I wasn’t really expecting this to actually happen.” She says quietly. “I know I initiated all of this, but really thought nothing would happen.”

 

“Yeah, well,” Dan says. “You kind of had us over a barrel on that one.” And he shrugs while saying it, looking at his shoes. He cards his hand through his hair, making sure it’s still upright and continues, “but let’s not think of that now yeah?”

 

Charlie and Will come over at that moment to interrupt. “What’s going on?” Charlie asks his girlfriend, slight concern on his face.

 

“Dan was just seeing if I needed to go over anything before we go this afternoon.” Sharon replies. “I think I’m fine, but do you guys have and advice for me?” She asks the room in general.

 

“Ignore everything Dan does and focus on what you’re meant to be doing,” Woody replies from behind them all, a bit too quickly for Dan’s liking and he sticks his tongue out at him.

 

Sharon looks at the drummer with confusion.

 

“He does his own thing, he changes melodies at will and he’s just mad,” Will clarifies for her, and Dan clasps his chest as if he’s been mortally wounded. “What? It’s true!” Will exclaims, and looks to Kyle for support.

 

“Don’t look at me, Will. I just sit in the back and do nothing,” Kyle responds, hurt. Dan catches his eyes at that and tries to convey his apologies for saying that about him. Kyle turns his back on him, and Dan wonders if maybe his words had hurt him more that he was pretending.

 

“Well, why don’t we do a quick run through of all the songs before we pack up?” Dan suggests to change the mood in the room and get them to do something else.

 

They spend the next two hours doing this and Sharon has most of the songs down with no problems. There are one or two tweaks needing done, but they all decide that it would be best to do it doing the set up.

 

They all then start packing up the bits they usually take away with them, packing bits of equipment and laptops into special cases so they can’t get damaged and wait for the bus to arrive.

 

They’re all sitting around on the floor relaxing when Sharon gets a text saying Margaret has arrived. She gets up to go down and get her, but she doesn’t seem that thrilled to be seeing her mother.

 

Charlie notices Dan looking at her as she passes and after she leaves he moves over to the singer.

 

“They had a major argument the other night when we got back to the house.” He explains. “She wants her mum to leave her alone and get on with things. Think she’s a bit embarrassed with Margaret’s behaviour.” Dan just cocks his eyebrows and shrugs as the woman and her daughter walk into the room in silence.

 

Everyone looks up when the door opens and closes and not one of them can believe what they are looking at.

 

“You do realise we’re sitting in a minibus for like 5 hours and then we’re gonna be in like a field for 3 days yeah?” Woody – ever tactful – says to Margaret.

 

“Yes,” the woman says pompously. “Of course I do, why would you ask that?” and they all just stare at her again.

 

She is wearing a long flowing black skirt which appeared to be made out of some sort of silk or chiffon fabric and what appeared to be knee high heeled boots underneath the skirt with stiletto heels. On her top half she was wearing a V-necked vest, and the v was low to the point it met her bra and her breasts were on display to everyone. She had Gucci sunglasses on her head and was carrying what appeared to be a Louis Vuitton holdall in her hands with matching handbag. Dan did have to wonder whether they were fake, and smirked at his own cynical thoughts.

 

“Have you maybe got something a bit more casual to wear?” Will asks politely, as if Will can be anything other than polite.

 

“Oh yes!” She exclaims, and Dan and Kyle catch each other’s eyes and both wonder at the same time exactly what she counted as casual, and they both have sudden coughing fits to cover any laughing which takes the rest of the group by surprise.

 

They were being picked up by the bus at 3pm, but their kit was being taken with their normal tour kit in a lorry an hour or so before, because it takes them longer to drive there. There was a knock on the door and Coop – their sound guy – pokes his head around the door to let them know he was there.

 

They all trade ‘hello’s’ and introductions with the Sharon and Margaret and Dan quietly gets to work with Kyle to get the more delicate items down into the truck. Coop watches in silence. He had been warned before about the problems between the two of them, but he didn’t want to say anything that might set them off or make things worse.

 

Kyle and Dan follow Coop downstairs to make sure nothing was going to get broken and wave off the crew as they head off. Left alone for the first time all day, Dan looks around and then grabs Kyle by the wrist and pulls him around the back of the building where the bins were kept.

 

He tries to pin the younger man up against the wall, but Kyle manages to get the better of him and switch their positions so that he holds Dan’s wrists at his side and pushes him backwards until he can’t go further.

 

“Was there something you wanted, Dan?” Kyle whispers seductively to the singer. Dan can’t help the shiver that automatically goes down his spine and to his dick. Kyle leans forward quickly and presses a hard, possessive kiss against Dan’s mouth, with no intent of it to go any further. As he pulls away, Dan cries and tries to follow his mouth for more.

 

“Not now babe.” Kyle says softly. “There’s too many people who can see.” And Dan knows this is true, but his brain is not currently the thing he is thinking with and all he can see is that the man he loves is in front of him.

 

“Come on. I need to think of some hilariously funny insult to throw at you when we get back in there,” and he swaggers back out to the front of the building. As Dan watches him go he realises it’s going to be a very long journey to the South West.

 

\---

 

The mini bus arrives quickly once the equipment has come and doesn’t leave the group a lot of time to chat or insult each other, much to Kyle’s despair. They all grab their bags and head down to the street to load the bus up.

 

Everyone apart from Margaret and Dan has one or two backpacks, but Dan also has some gear with him he couldn’t stomach to put in the lorry and so had decided to bring with him, and Margaret had brought 2 suitcases with her. She managed to corner Charlie and Will and get them to bring the bags down so all she would have to bring was her holdall and handbag.

 

“I thought those bags were called ‘holdalls’ for a reason?” Dan asks as innocently as he could as she walked past him. She glared at him as if he was an ant she was about to step on and he chuckled when she was out of earshot.

 

They all load onto the bus and Margaret acts as if she’s never seen anything like it before. She plonks herself in the seat at the front and lets the others climb over her to get to their own seats. It was big enough so no one had to sit next to anyone else, but that was about it. Dave had outdone himself with the cheapness of it, so they were going to have to slum it in motorway services on the way down.

 

Charlie and Sharon obviously sit next to each other and automatically cuddle together like they can’t not hold each other for any length of time and Dan looks at them and smiles to himself. Kyle passes him at that moment to get to his seat and he chooses the two seats behind where Dan had curled up.

 

Kyle leans forward to shove his small bag under the seat in front of him that Dan was sitting in and softly, so that not even Dan thinks he hears right, he says,

 

“Soon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So just want to say thank you to everyone who's read, commented and kudosed. You guys have no idea how much it means!
> 
> Have another idea for other stories for this universe, but not sure if anyone would want to read them, so let me know if you could.
> 
> Hope you enjoy! x


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, so waiting til 4:15 is killing me so have another chapter!
> 
> Hope you like

Chapter Twenty Five

It took the band an hour to get out of central London with all of the traffic at that time of day. Dan had curled up on his two seats, taken his shoes of and shoved his Yankees cap over his eyes to try and get some sleep during the journey. He had his headphones over his head and he was currently listening to the playlist ‘January 2015’ for some nostalgia.

 

Kyle was desperately trying not to stare at his lover as he slept. He always found a sleeping Dan beautiful and innocent. He looked so much younger than his years when he was sleeping and he looked as if he had no worries at all. Kyle was concerned about what the singer had planned for the weekend, but he trusted him implicitly so he knew that whatever happened would be fine in the long run.

 

He got broken out of his thoughts by hearing Sharon ask loudly “we’re not camping there this weekend are we?”

 

Charlie chuckled at the questions and Kyle saw him place a kiss on her forehead. “No sweet, we’re not.”

 

“Are we stopping soon?” Comes a voice from the front, and Kyle rolls his eyes at the question. “I need to stretch my legs and get a drink.”

 

The driver tells her they’ll stop at the next services and that seems to make her happy. They pull in about 12 miles later and the group troop off the bus stretching their legs and backs. Kyle had so wanted to be the one to wake up Dan and see his sleepy eyes come in to focus, but he had to walk past him and leave it to Will to wake him up and get that wonderful sight. Standing at the side of the bus he pulls his black hoody over his head to keep the chill that had fallen over the countryside of the M5 away from him, and wait for everyone else to join him.

 

Margaret had already headed off into the building and Kyle just shouts after her cheekily, “get the coffee started for us all yeah?! Large cinnamon cappuccino for me, Woody’ll have an Americano, Will has a latte, Dan’s a flat white and Charlie’s is a tea! Thanks!”

 

The older woman stops in the middle of the car park and glares back at him as if he had asked her to do something abominable, and he just smiles and winks at her before turning her back to her.

 

“Hi! Oh my god, you’re Kyle aren’t you?!” comes an excited voice from behind him. He startles and looks behind him to see a sweet looking young girl staring at him with wide eyes full of adoration. She couldn’t be older than thirteen and was wearing an oversized Bastille hoody that Kyle recognised as one they sold at a tour a year or so ago. He smiles at her.

 

“Hi! Yeah, I’m Kyle. What’s your name?”

 

“I’m Amanda…oh my god, I’m so excited to meet you! I love you, and Dan! And the music is amazing…” and the girl starts waxing lyrical about them as Kyle politely stands smiling at her.

 

It was at that point the others had all joined him and the girl’s eyes got bigger and bigger in her head and her voice got higher and higher. As soon as she saw Dan, Kyle thought she was going to collapse with a coronary and Kyle was silently hoping he wasn’t going to have to ring an ambulance for her.

 

Dan – being Dan – gave the girl a hug and then agreed when he was asked for a selfie from the teenager.

 

“Why don’t I take it?” Kyle asks generously.

 

“Oh!” the girl exclaims. “Can I have one with you and Kyle?” She asks optimistically. There is a beat of silence as the rest of the band glance at each other to see if the Kyle and Dan were going to keep to their promise to be professional. As Kyle and Dan both see the looks they both keep back the eye rolls they desperately want to make. Even if they were in a major row, they weren’t stupid enough to make their younger fans suffer.

 

“I’ll take the photo then!” Sharon says and comes out from behind the other men to take it for the girl. The boys stand either side of the young girl and smile into the camera with her and Amanda looks as if all of her Christmases have come at once.

 

Her dad then seems to realise where his daughter has run off to and comes over apologising profusely to them as he goes. All but Kyle and Dan head off to relieve themselves and get food as the two men say their goodbyes.

 

“I knew that the magazines had it wrong!” The girl says to them before they leave. “You’re not going to break up!” and the two men just smile kindly at the girl as they walk away, refusing to confirm or deny anything.

 

\---

 

It turned out Margaret was not feeling generous enough to buy anyone a drink – including her own daughter – so the stop was a bit longer while they all stood in line to get drinks and food. They all decided Harry Ramsdens was the best idea for food and coffee and fish and chips were all trailed back to the bus to devour on the journey.

 

Kyle held the trip up even longer after that while he decided he needed a cigarette before going any further so he headed out to light up while everyone else waited. He stood by the entrance of the services and suddenly saw a light blue cap walk towards him out of the corner of his eye.

 

“What are you doing here?” He frantically asks Dan as he gets closer.

 

“I needed to speak to you. Don’t worry, they can’t see us from there and they’re all eating anyway. I told them I was going to the loo.”

 

Kyle stubs his butt out under his shoe and lets Dan guide him further out of sight behind a strategically placed bush. When he is comfortable enough that no one can see them unless they come looking, Dan puts his arms around Kyle’s waist and pulls him closer towards him. Kyle can see the other man tilt his head and move closer to his face and he gives in knowing that everything will feel better as soon as he feels the softness of those lips against his own. The kisses are short, and Kyle gets three in quick succession, before he can’t take it anymore and needs to taste more of him. He brings his hand up to cu the back of Dan’s neck and holds him in place as he tries to pull away after the next kiss. He can feel Dan smiling against his lips at the gesture and he opens up to let Kyle gain entry into his mouth. Kyle licks against the roof of the other mouth, tasting everything he can get hold of and then starts teasing Dan’s tongue with his own. When the need for air gets too much for both men they finally break away with one last small kiss to end with. Dan smirks and walks away from Kyle with a wink and heads into the toilets to keep up the pretense.

 

Dan climbs back into the bus having calmed himself down in the toilet. He noticed that Kyle has already made it back and is currently trying to ignore his eyes and he smirks to himself.

 

“Mate,” he asks the driver as he walks past. “You got Bluetooth in this thing? Can we get some music?” and the driver nods and tells him how to hook it up.

 

“Oh no, we are not listening to your rubbish music!” Margaret says from behind him.

 

Dan turns and looks at her. “Oh Margaret, I’m so glad that you are so supportive of your daughter’s endeavours, considering everything that’s happened, but I was thinking about listening to other things.” He replies sarcastically and shakes his head and walks back to his seat.

 

Shake it Off by Taylor Swift starts playing and the guys in the back all start cheering and laughing.

 

\---

 

It’s close to 10pm by the time the bus pulls into the hotel they will be staying at for the weekend and they all start to check in and deciding who is staying in which room. Margaret refuses to let Sharon and Charlie stay in the same room, much to the couple’s chagrin. Sharon is forced into sharing a room with her mother and the others all get the keys to their own rooms. Luckily they have all been booked separate rooms so there was no need to worry about sharing and room arrangements, which made three of the band sigh with relief.

 

They are all staying on the same floor so they all head up together. Dan has managed to score a corner room which he is very happy about and when he looks out of his corner window he can see in the dim evening light how close the festival venue is to them.

 

He gets a notification on his phone and looks at it. Kyle has sent him a message to check out his twitter feed. He clicks into the app and sees the photo of the girl they had met earlier that day. She looks ecstatic in the photo and it is a good one of the two of them too.

 

_“@bastilledan @kyle_jsimmons are so nice! Love them so much!”_

 

and when he reads that Dan smiles to himself. He still gets butterflies in his stomach when he realises how much what they do means to the fans. He clicks on to the comments and relies to the photo

 

_“Bastille are over! He’s a fag! Don’t want to listen to gay music!”_

_“Kyle hates him now cos he’s gay, its obvious!”_

_“Kyle was fine when it was all a joke, now hes scared and hes gonna leave”_

That was upsetting. And he knew that it would hurt the girl as well. He clicks onto the troll’s profiles and can see right away they aren’t fans, just idiots that follow anyone to make themselves feel better when they can insult them. He blocks them from his page so he doesn’t have to deal with them, but he does see a couple of other tweets that were from what seemed like genuine fans along the same lines.

 

_“@bastilledan can’t be gay, hes going to marry me!”_

_“Dan is so gorgeous, he can’t be gay! I want his children. If hes gay I’m never listening again”_

 

He sighs and just tweets a reply to the photo and then retweets.

 

_“Haters gonna hate #shakeitoff!”_

 

And then starts a new message to send out.

 

_“Hitting the main stage on Sunday in @CornFest! Hope to see you there!”_

He hits the power button on his phone and hopes against hope he is doing the right thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the M5 is a motorway to Cornwall from London. Harry Ramsdens is a fish and chip chain now in motorway service stations (really not meaning to teach UK folks how to suck eggs, but for anyone who didn't know from abroad lol.) 
> 
> And I don't know why, but have a lovely vision in my head of all the boys singing and dancing to Shake it Off to relax. It's my head cannon...(it's fun in my head lol)
> 
> Let me know if anything is good or bad please. Love everyone's comments.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So my guys are at it again...admittedly I blame the big weekend, but anyway! Have a second chapter for today. Don't say i'm not generous(!)
> 
> Please enjoy x

Chapter Twenty Six

Morning came far too quickly for Dan’s liking. Even though he had slept on the bus, he slept in a bad position and was in so much pain from it. He had tried to ease everything with a hot shower the previous night and pain killers, but it didn’t seem to help so he made it down to breakfast walking a little bit stiffly.

 

He was the second person down for breakfast, so he ordered coffee from the waitress and sat down in an empty chair opposite Kyle. Kyle had seen the way that Dan had walked into the room and looked at his boyfriend with concern.

 

“I’m fine Ky. Sore, but fine,” he says without being asked and he smiled a small smile at the man. His cafetiere arrived at that precise moment and he groaned _‘thank god’_ as he poured the dark liquid into his cup. He saw the moustache of the other man twitch into a smile as he said it and he put the cup to his mouth and drank deeply staring intently into his partner’s eyes.

 

“Stop it, or I’ll throw you on the table right now and your plan will be done for.” Kyle retorts.

 

“Game on,” Dan replies and cocks his eyebrow at him. “Hi guys!” He says suddenly as he sees Will and Woody walk towards them. “Sleep OK?”

 

There were quiet murmurs from them as they come in and sit down. The waitress returns and asks for any food orders and most of them apart from Dan puts in for full English. Dan asks for toast only and sees Margaret come in and sit pointedly at a completely separate table.

 

“Rude,” Woody comments, slightly louder than was necessary.

 

Dan gets up slowly and limps over to the woman’s table. She watches him approach her with a smirk on her face as she sees how uncomfortable he appears to be. He sits himself opposite her at the small table and she just raises a well plucked eyebrow at him as if to allow him to ask his question.

 

“I was just coming to say you don’t have to stick around if you don’t want to today. We’ll just be heading over to show Sharon how things usually work and introduce her to the crew. I might try and see if we can get the conference room here for a couple of hours this evening but nothing exciting. Then we’ll head over tonight and she can try and enjoy some of the night life for the first night.”

 

She just continues to look at him as he talks. Once he finishes she just picks up her teacup and drinks from it and continues to be silent.

 

“Right then! Good talk!” he says and heads back to the band. “No words. I have no words for that woman and I have a degree in English…” he says incredulously. He notices Kyle laugh silently into his own coffee.

 

“Don’t worry mate,” Will says clapping him on the back. “Your words had to fail you at some point.”

 

“Had a message from Charlie last night,” Woody interrupts. “Apparently Sharon snuck out and got to his room. He was very happy when he texted…” he leaves the sentence at that, but everyone knew what he was insinuating.

 

“Wow,” Kyle says. “I thought he’d already done that.”

 

“Apparently not,” Will adds.

 

“Not everyone puts out as quickly as you Kyle,” Dan slips in quickly. The twinkle in Kyle’s eye let Dan know he had taken it as the joke he meant it to be, but he was expecting the caustic retort that was thrown back at him.

 

“Or you, Smith, and we’ve all seen the photos.” And Dan blushes.

 

Charlie, Sharon and food all arrive at the same time and they all set about eating the mass of carbs and fats in front of them. Dan repeats the plan to the others about what they were going to do that day in between bites and they all seem happy with it.

 

Dan finishes his food first, downs a couple more pain killers and excuses himself from the rest of them. He’s moving a bit easier now so he heads up to reception. The woman behind the desk looks a bit shocked as he walks up to her, but to her credit she keeps calm and treats him like any other guest.

 

“Hi, I was just wondering if you had a conference room or something here that I can book for a couple of hours this afternoon?” He asks politely.

 

“Uhm, yea, sorry, yes we do. I think it’s free let me check.” And the girl turns away from him to check the computer while he flicks through his emails on his phone. A couple of moments later she looks back to him and confirms that it is free. “Can I have a name for the booking please and a room number?”

 

“Yeah, name’s Smith and the room is 314”

 

“Alright, Mr Smith,” and the girl giggles to herself. “The room is yours from three this afternoon.”

 

“Awesome, thanks.” Dan says and leaves the girl to walk around the grounds and the building while everyone else gets ready.

 

\---

 

He’s walking down a corridor he’s not too sure he should be in when he comes across double doors left slightly open. He peeks around the doors and sees a large ballroom with a large hardwood dancefloor. The other side of the room was a large antique grand piano sitting all alone.

 

“Nice!” Dan exclaims to himself and heads in to take a look at it. He lifts the lid of the instrument and marvels at the intricacy of the wood carving that is on it. He hasn’t had the chance to play on something as intricate as this for a long time and he sits himself at the bench in front of it. He puts his feet on the peddles and plays a few scales to see if it in tune. To his delight it is and he puts his hands on the keys and starts to play.

 

He shuts his eyes and the music starts flooding out from him. He can remember this being one of the first pieces of music he learned when he was becoming more into his music, and he had learned the majority of it by ear, because he had listened to it so much.

The flowing backing melody of the piece mixing seamlessly with the upper octave he played with his right hand. He knows he makes a few mistakes along the way, but he is compelled to keep playing to the end of the piece and so he does until the music winds down naturally and he plays the last chords to end it.

 

He sits there a few beats longer with his eyes still closed and he then hears clapping coming from the direction of the door behind him. He turns in his seat to see the current bane of his life looking at him and clapping.

 

“So you are quite talented then.” She says once she stops clapping. Dan stands up quickly and shrugs at her as he tries to pass. She puts her hand out to grab his arm as he passes. “You know Dan; I know you don’t want to upset me. Kyle didn’t either which is why he did what he did for me.” Dan looks at her out of the corner of his eyes, his mouth in a hard line instead of his usual smile.

 

“What do you want now, Margaret? Have we not given you enough?”

 

“Yeah, Margaret,” comes a voice from the door, and Dan looks up to see Kyle, Will and Woody standing there, glaring at the overbearing woman. “What else do you want?” The relief washes through him like a tidal wave. Now he had some witnesses to what was going on.

 

Without missing a beat, she drops Dan’s arm and simply says, “coffee. Dan seems to be in the know when it comes to good coffee. I was going to ask him out on a coffee date.”

 

Before Dan is able to say anything, Will says, “Margaret, I think he’s a bit young for you and you’re married, so I think it’s best not to ask, yeah?”

 

She gives one last look to Dan, huffs and walks away from the men, pushing rudely through the three at the door. Dan’s composure seems to desert him right then and he stumbles backwards slightly leaning against the Steinway.

 

Kyle quickly rushes to his side to hold him up. Forgetting that the other two were also there watching, he presses a soft kiss against the singer’s temple and quietly asks him whether he’s alright.

 

“Right guys. Are you going to finally tell us what the hell is going on?!” Woody asks exasperatedly.

 

Dan and Kyle look at each other and then at their friends and slowly nod yes.

 

\---

 

“So you aren’t going to tell us what you’re planning?” Will clarifies after the entire story has been explained to them. They’ve all taken a seat on the dancefloor in the ballroom, and Dan’s joints are starting to ache again. Kyle notices that he’s starting to look uncomfortable and he scoots over to let his lean his back against his chest and between his legs.

 

“Nope. The less people who know the better. So the number of people who are currently aware of ‘the plan’ stands at one.” Dan replies, points to himself as he says it and relaxes back against Kyle.

 

“Dude, did you just air quotes ‘the plan’?” Woody asks.

 

“ _Dude_ , did you just call me dude?” Dan retorts, trying to ignore the question.

 

“SO…basically Dan and I are still broken up and hate each other. I don’t think anyone else needs to know about this until ‘the plan’ happens on Sunday, yeah?” Kyle interrupts before it can turn into an all-out ‘dude-fest’.

 

They all nod and murmur in agreement and stand up from the floor. Dan looks at his watch and realises that they’re late leaving to go to the site to show Sharon around and they all walk up towards the main reception desk. Sharon and Charlie are already waiting for them. Margaret was also there with a look like she had either eaten a raw lemon, or eaten a raw lemon and realised she was chewing on a wasp. Needless to say, she wasn’t happy.

 

They got back in the bus and head up to where the festival was being quickly put together. There were going to be three different tents for the weekend – including the main stage and a dance tent – and they had already gotten the majority of the building works finished by the time they arrived.

 

Party-goers and fans were starting to arrive in the camping field. Brightly coloured cheap tents were being pitched with flags outside them, with ticket holders sitting in beach chairs enjoying the sun and enjoying liquid lunches.  

 

Dan took in the entire atmosphere around him. He hadn’t been this early to a festival since they stopped performing in the newcomer’s tents and he hadn’t attended a festival for years before that. He had forgotten how carefree everyone could be.

 

Margaret was hating it. They had all been right to call her out on her outfits the previous day. She was wearing heeled lace up boots today with jodhpurs and a button up white shirt. Somehow she also seemed to step in every mud pile she could find and Charlie ended up trying to get in good with the in law and hold her up as they walked across to the stage manager to find out the plan for their weekend and see where Coop had left their things.

 

 

They found the person that they needed to speak to and was pointed toward the storage area for their stuff and saw where Coop was sorting things. Dan left the rest of them to head off towards their sound guy and make sure their set was still in the same way they had left it after the tour.

 

“Coop!” He shouts to the man. “Everything looking alright?”

 

“Yeah Dan, everything looking good. How you doing? That girl doing OK?” Coop asks and Dan nods.

 

“Yeah, was a bit tricky at first, but looking good now. She’s actually pretty good.” Dan tells him.

 

“Her mum looks familiar, is she famous?”

 

“Nah. She’s acting as her manager at the moment, but she’s a bit…highly strung? Is that a nice way of saying insane?”

 

“I swear I know her from somewhere,” Coop continues, ignoring the singer. He goes quiet for a minute, clearly thinking hard. He snaps his fingers, making Dan jump slightly. “That’s it!” He says. “She’s from my town! She’s like totally nuts! She makes everything up and I think she’s been caught a few times for defamation or something!”

 

“You’re kidding?” Dan says, his brow furrowing as he tries to take it all in.

 

“Nope! Wow, so we have her around eh? This’ll be a fun weekend!”

 

“You have absolutely no idea mate.” Dan replies and heads back to the band.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is what I was imagining the Piano looking like. Love antique instruments! http://shafferpianos.com/Steinway.1864.Concert/
> 
> Piano piece for Dan is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhDmVwP-Cd8  
> Love this piece. An oldie but a goodie.
> 
> Again, love all comments. Please let me know what you think. (I don't want to sound like i'm begging, but i do like positive reinforcement lmao)


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty Seven

The rest of the morning and early afternoon went off without many problems. They all headed back to the hotel for 3pm with Coop to do a quick practice and get Sharon sorted for earbuds and to get her voice calibrated for the microphones.

 

The room they had been allocated was the ballroom Dan had found earlier, so all of them moved down the corridor into it. Dan hadn’t paid much attention to the space earlier apart from the fact there was a dancefloor and a piano, so when he walked into it that afternoon he was able to notice more about the area. There were large picture windows looking out over the large hotel gardens and these were framed with plush deep purple velvet curtains, making the room seem even more rich than it had with only the antique piano in it. There was a large golden chandelier in the middle of the room hanging from a high vaulted ceiling, and deep blue carpets aligned the edges of the dancefloor.

 

Someone had come in at some point and erected a table for them and there were now come chairs amassed around it so that no one had to sit on the floor. Coop retrieved his laptop and brought it in so that they had some backing music to practice to. Charlie insisted that Dan sing at his normal gig volume and style so that Sharon wouldn’t be too confused when it came to the day, and when he did it was clear the girl hadn’t realised how much he had been holding back before now.

 

“Wow, he’s loud,” Sharon says enviously at the end of the first song. Everyone just laughs at that, and murmur comments along the lines of ‘you have no idea’. After the two hours they had booked, Dan tells them all the set list of 7 songs they were going to sing on Sunday and everyone disperses quickly. Before Dan can disappear to get changed and have a shower, he sees Coop move over to Margaret who had spent the time quietly in the corner watching everything like a hawk.

 

“Hi, Maggie! I don’t know if you remember me, but I’m Coop. We went to school together?”

 

The woman’s eyes grew wide as she looked at the man and Dan held back even more as if he was checking something on Coop’s computer so he could hear exactly what was being said.

 

“Oh…uhm…hi, yes I thought you looked familiar yesterday…” She stumbles and stutters.

 

“It’s a really small world!” Coop says. “I’ve was telling Dan earlier about the things people used to get up to in our town, and the rumours that used to go around…” and they both look at Dan and he smirks back at the woman. The anger that suddenly flares up in the woman’s eyes is obvious. Before she is able to say anything, Dan just clicks something on the Mac.

 

“It’s looking good Coop. See you later yeah?” and he head away from the awkwardness. He walks towards his room suddenly realising what he has planned will actually work.

 

\---

 

There’s a muffled knock at his door as he takes his top off to get ready for a shower.

 

“Hang on a minute!” Dan shouts and heads towards the peep hole to see who it is. He smiles when he sees the distorted face of Kyle through the small hole in the door.

 

He opens the door a crack.

 

“I didn’t order room service…” he jokes and goes to close the door. Kyle pushes his arm through and gets the door open as Dan tries to wrestle it closed on his, laughing hysterically. Kyle grabs his wrists to stop him from wrestling and pulls him towards him to give him a hard kiss on the lips. This action automatically disables Dan and he stops what he was trying to do.

 

“Ah! I’ve learned what your off switch is! Finally,” Kyle crows. “You’re in a good mood.”

 

“Yup. I’m all optimistic again. It’s a good feeling.” Dan replies with a toothy grin and a sparkle in his eye that Kyle hadn’t seen for over a month.

 

“Hm? Why are you half naked?” Kyle purrs as he pulls the older man close to him by the belt loops of his jeans, and kiss him again fully on the lips, taking his time, but not letting himself be drawn into a deeper kiss.

 

“Shower…” Is all Dan says, breathlessly, when they pulled apart.

 

“Good idea,” and Kyle pulls him towards the en-suite shower room.

 

The bathroom in Dan’s room was huge. The shower was the length of a normal size bath and had a rain shower head in the ceiling and a separate hand shower. The tray was grey stone and warm to the soles of the feet when they walked in. Both of the men disrobed as quickly as they could and climbed into the enclosure, barely breaking contact as they moved. Dan fumbled with the taps as he tried to turn on the water, and when it started to fall it miraculously stayed at the perfect temperature for both of them. They pulled apart as they started to be doused by the shower to watch the water droplets cling to the other’s body. Kyle’s beard and moustache became quickly soaked and Dan surged forward to lick at the seam of the other man’s lip and make the most of a wet Kyle.

 

Dan soon deviated from his lover’s lips and moved down his jawline into the folds of his neck that he knew were especially sensitive. He moves his hands to the back of Kyle’s neck and massages it as he starts to slowly move down the man’s body, licking and lathing any area he can get his lips onto.

 

Kyle starts to buck his hips forward, looking for more and mewls as Dan moves slowly and carefully down his body, paying as much attention to his paramour as he can. He finally sinks to his knees in front of Kyle and looks up through his eyelashes to see Kyle staring at him, his eyes now blow black with lust.

 

“I’m never going to be able to watch you dance to of The Night again now, you do know that don’t you,” he babbles as he watches Dan wink at him and kiss the tip of his erection. Kyle gasps as Dan then sucks the tip into his mouth and tongues the slit of his cock with abandon. Kyle’s hands automatically move his hands down to the other man’s head and tangles his fingers through the longer strands on top of his head. He looks down and sees that as well as giving him one of the best blow jobs of his life he is also fingering himself open for him. On seeing this he just throws his own head back so that the water is pounding his face and groans obscenely.

 

Dan hollows his cheeks further and starts to bob his head up and down the shaft of Kyle’s impressive length. He increases the suction and then starts to cup the man’s scrotum as he goes, getting into a frantic rhythm. Kyle starts to pull at his head then and Dan pulls off with a whine of his own.

 

“If you don’t stop, I’m gonna come too soon,” Kyle breathes out to him and pulls him to his feet to give him a searing kiss full of tongue and teeth. He pushes Dan out of the cubicle and into the bedroom. He collapses, sodden and hard into the arm chair provided, and pulls Dan towards him. “I want you on me…I want to watch you,” he pleads and Dan scrambles to find a condom and lube.

 

“Shit, no condoms,” he curses as he’s looking around.

 

“Dan, I’m clean are you?” Kyle begs for an answer, almost incoherent with need. Dan looks over to him and nods quickly. “Then get here now!” the man demands, and Dan rushes back to him with the bottle of lube in his hand.

 

The lid of the small bottle clicks open and Kyle can feel the cool liquid cover his dick as Dan pours it over him, and then gives it a cursory stroke, causing more noises to come from the man. Kyle then watches as Dan climbs on top of him on the chair, puts one knee either side of his lap and slowly guides himself down on top of him, moaning in pleasure the entire way.

 

Kyle has never bare backed before, he had never felt comfortable enough with any of his lovers to even attempt it, so the complete and utter warmth and feeling of being surrounded by another person is as intense as it has ever been and he almost feels like he’s losing his virginity again. Dan can also feel the blood pulsing through his lover’s length as there is no sheath to cover it and subdue the feeling. They both still for a few moments while they both adjust to the feelings and gaze intensely into each other’s eyes.

 

All of a sudden, Dan starts to pull off, almost completely and then slowly sinks back down onto Kyle, driving the younger man more insane with the slow movements. He tries this a couple of times, before he then changes position ever so slightly and with a wicked grin on his face, slams back down onto his lover and they both howl in pleasure as Dan’s prostate is also hit hard at the same time. The pace changes to frantic want and need and the sweat starts to drip down both of the men as they have the best kind of workout either of them can possibly imagine.

 

As Dan rides Kyle with all of his might, both of the men can feel the white hot arousal build within them and both of them start panting faster and faster, obviously both getting off on the other’s pleasure. Without even being touched, Dan starts to come like a fountain onto Kyle’s chest and seeing this and feeling the increasing pressure around his erection tips Kyle over the edge and they both come within seconds of each other.

 

Catching their breaths, they press their foreheads against each other and wait for their hearts to stop racing like a freight train. Neither person speaks for the longest time and they both enjoy the silence in each other’s heat.

 

Finally, Kyle shifts slightly and Dan makes a soft cry of displeasure. He picks the man up in his arms with his legs still around his waist and carries him back to the en-suite to start cleaning them both up.

 

“We are never sitting on that chair again,” Kyle says quietly.

 

\---

 

After getting clean – again – Kyle throws his clothes on and sips out of Dan’s room to get ready for the evening. There was a get together of crew and some bands at the festival site, so they were all going to make an appearance and see if they can catch up with old friends and see some of their own crew.

 

Dan threw on an old black graphic t-shirt and black jeans and was tying up his black leather high tops when the others knocked on this door to see if he was ready.

 

He opened the door and let them all troop in and wait for him as he sorted out his hair. Margaret was obviously with them as well and she walked in and automatically sat down on the armchair in the room. Dan hadn’t seen it as he was trying to sort himself in the mirror, but he heard the snort of laughter coming from Kyle who had settled himself on his bed while looking at his phone.

 

Everyone looked around at him when he made the noise, and he just looked back at them all.

 

“Oh…nothing,” he lies. “Kid being tripped up by a cat on twitter.” And holds his phone up to indicate what he had been looking at.

 

“You’re sadistic Kyle,” Woody says to him.

 

“Are we leaving any time soon?” Margaret pipes up. “Not everyone likes just hanging around you know.”

 

“You don’t have to come!” Dan says. “You can stay here.”

 

“And leave my baby fending for herself around all these men?! Absolutely not!” And Dan does see Sharon roll her eyes and flash a killing look at her mother at that.

 

“It’s fine, I’m ready. Let’s head off and get this party started.” Dan says and they all troop down to reception to get their taxi.

 

\---

 

The party is in the tent where all the acts will be waiting to go on stage over the weekend. The beer tents had already opened for the fans who had come that day and the alcohol was flowing pretty freely by the time the group got there. There was a DJ playing the newest hits and some 90’s house music from the corner. Dan managed to catch his name and he was playing the newcomers tent that weekend.

 

The music was decent. There were some good mixes in there and Dan’s head was bopping along without him even noticing. He had a plastic pint glass full of beer and was chatting to Coop and some of the other sound engineers, just catching up on everything that had been happening since they got back.

 

Dan suddenly feels a tap on his shoulder and he looks round to see a guy who looks vaguely familiar to him standing there with his own beer in his hand.

 

“Uh, hi!” Dan says. “Rob right?” he hopes he’s right. He thinks he’s one of the runners Coop had hired before they went on tour. The guy was nice enough. He had light blond hair and rugged features. Dan would guess he was maybe slightly older than him, and his shoulders were very broad indeed.

 

The guy nodded and they got to talking about what he had been up to and made awkward small talk.

 

“So, what I really wanted to ask was if you fancied getting a drink together sometime?” Rob eventually asked after Dan had run out of platitudes and comments about the weather. “I saw that you were into guys online and thought you might want to hook up sometime.” He went on with a smirk and a wink.

 

“Wow.” Dan finally says to the man. “Well, I’m definitely flattered, Rob.” He says as gently as he can, “but I’m really not looking for anything at the moment.”

 

“Oh I don’t want anything serious. Just looking to get off really.” The man says bluntly.

 

“I have no idea how that hasn’t worked on me before, but really Rob I think that it would just make work awkward and I really don’t think I’m interested.” Dan says, deciding subtlety was clearly not going to work on this man.

 

“Oh well, baby, maybe some other time then,” and the guy actually smacks Dan’s ass as he leaves. Dan watches after him incredulously.

 

“He’ll be gone tomorrow,” comes a voice in his ear and he turns to see Coop grinning at him, trying not to laugh. Dan looks at him, purses his mouth and just nods in agreement with his friend. He downs what’s left of his beer and goes to set the empty container on a table nearby and catches a couple making out in the nearby corner.

 

He wouldn’t normally take a second look, but something about the clothes the woman was wearing and the size of the man caught his eye and he had to do a double take. He took his phone out and snapped a quick picture.

 

He couldn’t believe his eyes when he realised that the two people who were very interested in each other’s tonsils happened to be Margaret and their manager, Dave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the past few chapters have been very talky, so i'm sorry for that! Im thinking there's maybe another 4 or 5 left of this particular piece.
> 
> As always let me know what you think x


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, so this has been a nightmare for me. It's been really difficult trying to get to the next part of the story.   
> Please enjoy it! x

Chapter Twenty Eight

Dan rushes away from the busy corner to see if he can find any of the others. He sees Charlie and Woody having an in depth conversation at the bar and Will ‘dad dancing’ in the middle of the floor, but he couldn’t see Kyle anywhere.

 

He gets his phone out again to text and find him, but as soon as he does that he feels the vibrations coming from it as someone was ringing him. He quickly heads out of the main entrance of the tent to take the call and as he gets into the fresh night air he sees that it’s his mum ringing him.

 

“Hey Ma, what’s up?” He says hitting the accept button and sticking his finger in his other ear so he can hear better.

 

“Daniel, are you alright?” He can hear his mum say, sounding worried down the phone.

 

“I’m fine, why? I’m in Cornwall.”

 

“Ella finally showed us what’s been going on with you this past week. Dan, what happened?”

 

“Oh, that.” He says offhandedly. “Nothing mum, everything’s going to be fine. Trust me. I’ve got to go, need to speak to Kyle. I’ll text later.” He spies the other man talking to a small group of people as he heads across the smoking area.

 

“Alright sweetheart. Bye,” his mum says lovingly.

 

Dan doesn’t say anything, just hangs up the phone and slots it into the back pocket of his jeans, as he walks closer to the group he is heading for. Kyle notices him as he gets closer and excuses himself from the group of guys and girls and Dan has a flare of jealousy as he sees beautiful, slim blonde and brunette women fawning over the man.

 

“Sorry for interrupting,” he says as Kyle comes closer. Kyle looks at him with confusion.

 

“What the hell do you mean?” and Dan points to the group behind him who are still giggling and laughing away. Kyle looks deeply at Dan’s face and sees the spark of possessiveness there. “Them? Oh they’re groupies for The Vamps you idiot! They thought I was a runner. It was fun.”

 

“Still, a hot runner,” Dan mutters and Kyle looks at him and laughs. The alcohol must have loosened them both up a bit because neither of them payed attention to anyone else as Kyle messes up Dan’s hair and throws an arm around his neck and leads him away from prying eyes. They head towards a quiet part of the field next to the party and spend a nice long time enjoying the feel of each other’s lips and tongues under cover of darkness, revelling in the anonymity it gave them.

 

“I was actually looking for you for another reason,” Dan pants during a break in the kissing.

 

“What, apart from to save me from the corruption of boy band groupies?” Kyle asks and claims Dan’s lips again for another blistering kiss.

 

Dan pushes his hand against Kyle’s chest to make him back up and away. He pulls his phone from his back pocket and shows the other man the photo he had taken back in the tent.

 

“Is that…?”

 

“Dave and Margaret,” Dan confirms and hands the phone to his boyfriend to have a proper look at the picture.

 

“She’s married.” Kyle says simply, as if that’s an obvious reason as any for her not to be doing what she was doing. “And what is Dave doing here anyway?” He adds, as an afterthought.

 

“I don’t know.” Dan shrugs. “He never told me he was coming. Maybe this has been going on longer than we all thought? To be honest, it doesn’t change anything, it just makes things a lot simpler after this weekend.”

 

Their conversation is interrupted by the shrieks and laughs of a group coming towards them. Kyle recognises them as the group he had been smoking with earlier and he starts to pull Dan away and back towards the tent.

 

“It’s Kyle!” One of the blonde girls shouts at him. Kyle smiles and waves kindly at them. “Who have you got there Kyle?” Another girl shouts. Both of the men try and edge around the group and try to ignore them. “C’mon Kyle!”

 

Kyle manages to side step the group and no one gets a look at Dan as he heads back into the tent to see what was going on. He looks back to the corner where he had seen the woman earlier and she is no longer there. He spins around quickly and takes stock of exactly where everyone was. Will and Woody were on the dancefloor and Charlie and Sharon were having ‘alone time’ in their own corner of the tent. He finally sees the older woman alone at the bar, leaning against the counter and watching everything around her.

 

As he’s about to move forward into the crowd and confront the woman, he sees Dave out of the corner of his eye and changes direction quickly.

 

“Dave, what a surprise to see you here,” Dan says, coming up from behind the large man and clearly making the man jump with surprise.

 

“Dan! I’ve been looking for you! I thought I would come down and see how you’re all doing down here, and as I haven’t actually seen you perform live for a while, I thought I would come and watch on Sunday.”

 

“Oh, right then. Not here for any other reason then?” Dan asks suspiciously.

 

“No, why would you think that?”

 

“No reason, it’s just a bit of a surprise is all. Maybe see you later then.” Dan says and turns to leave.

 

“Oh, you’ll definitely see me soon Dan,” Dave retorts ominously, but Dan wasn’t certain he was meant to hear it, so he fully ignored the comment and headed towards the small group on the dancefloor to make the most of his night.

 

\---

 

By the time they all got back to the hotel it was close to 3am, and they were all more drunk than sober. Margaret was being held up by Charlie and Sharon and they escorted her back to her room. Dan fully expected Sharon to stay with Charlie again and at least it would be easier now her mother was shit faced.

 

The rest of the band headed towards their rooms which were at the other end of the floor. They were trying their best to be quiet, but as with all drunk people, it ended up with them actually making more noise than normal. There were choruses of “shhhhhh” every so often followed swiftly by hysterical giggles and more than once Dan and Kyle fell into some unsuspecting hotel guest’s door.

 

They all decide to walk to the end of the corridor to drop Dan off first, and Woody and Will have to physically pry Kyle away from him so he can get inside. Being drunk and relatively alone had made Kyle handsy and he really didn’t want to separate from the other man.

 

“But he so cute!” Kyle starts protesting as they try to get his hands off of him. “Look at that face he’s so cute!” and he shucks a fist under Dan’s chin, while the singer grins widely at his partner.

 

“Kyle! Leave Dan alone!” Will admonishes sternly. “He needs to sleep!”

 

“Yeah Kyle, if he gets some sleep he’ll look cuter in the morning,” Woody adds helpfully, and this seems to make sense in Kyle’s brain and he decides to let go.

 

“OK.” Kyle admits finally. He surges forward quickly to claim Dan’s lips with his own in an extremely sloppy kiss, and once they pull away Dan stumbles through his door to get to his bed. The door shuts behind him and all he can hear is muffled cries of, “are you sure he’ll still be cute in the morning?”

 

Dan can’t even face the thought of changing his clothes, so he meanders over to his king sized bed and flops face first on top of the covers. Remembering at the last minute that he still had his contacts in, he pinches them out of his eyes and throws them somewhere towards the bin.

 

Shuffling up towards the soft pillows at the head of the bed he sighs contentedly, thinking about timings and exactly how everything was going to play to his advantage on Sunday. He also realised that if they tried anything to get back at him he now had Coop in his corner and some pretty damning photographic evidence on his side. Along with how annoyed Sharon appeared to be getting with her mother, it was all starting to work out very well for Dan indeed.

 

That night was one of his best night’s sleep since the whole debacle started. He fell asleep thinking about deep soulful brown eyes and a love he had never felt so strongly before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave comments if you feel the need or inclination! x


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all, its like the flood gates have opened! Please enjoy x

Chapter Twenty Nine

There was frantic pounding on the door. Dan lifts his head from the comfort of his pillow stares straight ahead of him. He was still on his stomach from where he had fell what could only have been a matter of hours ago and he was disorientated to where he exactly was. He shakes his head to try and clear it and rolls off of the side of the bed, grunting with discomfort as he went. He grabs his glasses from the side table and puts them on so he can at least see his way to the noise without falling over anything.

 

The knocking continues, and Dan was trying to decide whether it was actually coming from the door or from inside of his head as he shouts, “I’m coming hang on!” and pulls the door open to Will and Woody on the other side.

 

“Morning Cute Dan!” Woody shouts loudly and smiles broadly. “Coming for breakfast?” and Will smirks next to him.

 

“Why are you shouting?” Dan asks letting them inside, before going back to the bed and collapsing on top of it. “And why are you here so early? We don’t actually have to do anything today.” He moans petulantly.

 

“Do you know how impossible it was to get away from your boyfriend last night?” Will asks him. “This is your punishment for that.”

 

Dan looks at him confused.

 

“He wouldn’t let us leave until we swore an oath that you were the cutest thing on God’s green earth. He tried to write a song about it…I woke up singing it this morning,” Woody fills in for Dan’s benefit and looked slightly traumatised by the thought.

 

“So how has this turned into my problem?” Dan exclaims, throwing his face into the bed.

 

“Well, he’s not answering his door, so we thought you were the next best target.” Will explains.

 

“I hate you.” Dan deadpans to his face.

 

“Whatever, man just get dressed will you? Or deodorant or something…you stink like a brewery.” Woody drags him off the bed and pushes him towards the bathroom. “I’m starving and there’s food downstairs!” and Dan groans again and he shuts the door behind him.

 

\---

 

Kyle finally surfaces just before midday, looking as if he had had the best sleep possible. Dan had gotten the text from him to find out where they were and as they were all outside enjoying the sunshine in the beer garden – minus the alcohol – he came down to joint them. Charlie had already taken Sharon and Margaret back to the ground so Sharon could experience her first festival before performing the following day, so it was just the four of them. The rest of the bar was empty, as the hotel was booked full of the wealthier people attending the festival or the acts themselves instead of normal guests.

 

The garden is large and flat. Well-manicured grass surrounds a large patio area with raised flower beds made out of railway sleepers and filled with spring and summer flowers in pinks and purples so that there would always be blooms out for guests to enjoy. They were sitting at a large wooden table with separate seats and a large cram canvas parasol sheltering them from the unusually warm May day.

 

Kyle saunters over to them and Dan gives him the evilest look he can muster and continues to drink the largest coffee the bar staff was able to make him. If Kyle notices he doesn’t react, as he grabs Dan’s hair and bends down to kiss his forehead, and then sinks into the chair next to him.

 

“I’m not talking to you,” Dan says to him and carries on drinking. Woody snorts from the other side of the table.

 

“Cool.” Kyle replies and starts to chat to the other guys about what they had done that morning.

 

“Don’t you want to know why I’m not talking to you?” Dan asks him, frustratedly.

 

“I assume I probably deserve it, so nah, it’s fine.” And he goes back to talking.

 

Dan wrinkles his nose and pouts and goes back to drinking his coffee, glaring at Kyle from the corner of his eye. He pulls his legs up to his chest on the seat to get more comfortable and pray for his headache to disappear.

 

Kyle looks at him and moves his chair closer to the other man’s. He throws an arm around his shoulders and pulls him towards his own body.

 

“OK baby, tell me why you aren’t talking to me then.” He says into his hair, and gives him a light kiss, keeping his eyes looking out from behind his sunglasses to make sure no one is watching.

 

“You pissed them off last night and wouldn’t wake up so they made me get up with them this morning,” he complains, pointing at the bassist and drummer as he says it. “And my head hurts.”

 

“Why haven’t you got your sunglasses on then?” Will asks from the other side of the table, marvelling at how childish Dan is currently sounding and smirking gently.

 

“Couldn’t find them…” Dan mumbles under his breath so only Kyle could hear him. At that Kyle leans back and removes Dan’s glasses from his face and lays them carefully on the table in front of them. He then takes his sunglasses from his own nose and places them over his lover’s eyes.

 

“Better?” he whispers into his ear, and Dan nods slowly and closes his eyes to try and get some sleep. He can hear laughing from the other side of the table. “Shut up guys, he’s fragile,” Kyle says gently and Dan falls into a dreamless sleep.

 

\---

 

He wakes up being shaken gently and he opens his eyes to see a blurry figure in front of him.

 

“Will?” He says. “What’s going on?”

 

“Kyle had to move, he’s getting drinks. Dave and Margaret are on their way over.” Will hisses quickly at him.

 

Dan comes to quickly, remembering where he is and why his vision is blurry and he takes Kyle’s glasses off to put his own back on. When he can see properly again he sees the two annoyances coming towards him. He can feel his anxiety starting to bubble inside after everything that’s happened so far, but he puts a brave face on and waves as they come towards him.

 

“Margaret, Dave.” He says in greeting. “How was the fest?”

 

“Loud,” the woman replies curtly. “And dirty.” She adds.

 

“Yeah, fields seem to be like that,” Kyle says as he approaches from behind them with a tray of drinks in his hand. He puts the tray on the table and hands out all of the drinks but one, leaving Dan’s on the tray deliberately. “It’s really surprising seeing as grass is notoriously clean stuff.” He adds and the woman looks at him and rolls her eyes.

 

“What’s that?” Dan asks him, pointing to the glass.

 

Kyle shrugs and slinks into the chair he had been in before, but pulls it obviously away from Dan. Dan sighs loudly and looks at the other two, pointing at the glass.

 

“Diet Coke I think mate,” Woody says to him. He nods and leans forward to pick up the glass and down most of it to quench his thirst.

 

“So,” Dave cuts in loudly. “As I told you last night Dan, I’m here just to see how everything goes this weekend. Obviously there’s been some things in the press recently about you and Kyle,” and he looks at Kyle as he says it, who has quite noticeably turned his back to his boyfriend and crossed his legs. “So I just wanted to see how you guys were all interacting and behaving when it came to the music. I’ve been talking to Margaret,” and suddenly there’s a cough form Dan as he drinks his diet coke again, as if the fluid has gone down the wrong way.

 

“Sorry, inhaled when I was swallowing,” he apologises to the manager.

 

“As I was saying,” he continues, “Margaret was saying she’s worried about what is going on between you all so I’m just here to see how it works this weekend, and I just want you to know that I am prepared to make changes to the line-up if necessary.” He finishes.

 

“WHAT?” Dan exclaims. “Dave, there is no way in hell that you are touching anything else to do with this band!”

 

“Contract, Dan.” Is all the man says. “I suggest you read it.” And with that he walks away from the table with all of them staring open mouthed after them. Margaret gives them another look and a sneer, before following the man back inside.

 

“SHIT!” is all Dan says after they’ve gone back inside.

 

“Won’t your plan deal with this though Dan?” Will asks quietly.

 

“Shhh,” he says but keeps the angry look on his face. “They’re still looking out of the window,” he adds as he can see them peeking around the curtain that is shielding the window from the garden. He picks his glass up again and goes to drink from it. “I think they’ve gone,” he says as he puts it back down.

 

“So basically, they’ve just threatened us with major changes to the band,” Woody clarifies. “I don’t understand how this has helped anything?”

 

“Well basically, they still think me and Dan hate each other and after what they made me do they probably think that the whole thing is unsalvageable. I don’t know what they’re exact plan is, but…”

 

“It will all be fine after tomorrow,” Dan asserts, sounding more confident than he actually felt. He finishes his drink quickly and decides to head up to his room to do exactly what Dave has suggested he do – read his contract. “What time are we heading out for food tonight?” He asks the rest of them, looking at his watch.

 

They all decide on a time to meet and he heads up to his room to have a shower, decide on a game plan and read his contract. He only has a short amount of time to do anything so he showers and dresses in baggy jeans and a hoody – he wasn’t in the mood to dress in anything normal, and just wanted to be comfortable. He pulls his laptop out and searches the hard drive for his copy of the contract that Dave was so keen on him reviewing.

 

He essentially knew what Dave was getting at when he said what he said. There was a clause which principally allowed Dave to make fundamental changes if there was an unresolvable conflict. Again, as with the other clause, this was something that Dan allowed as they had never thought anything would cause that kind of damage.

 

He knew in his head that this would not be an issue after Sunday, but he still feared that things were going to happen against his express wishes to the music and band he had been trying to create for years.

 

He checks his watch to see the time and is shocked to see that he is now running late, so he grabs his keys and wallet and heads out of the door to his friends.

 

All through the dinner he was distracted and not paying attention to anything that was going on. Kyle was clearly worried about him as he kept his russet eyes burning into him whenever he wasn’t looking at him.

 

Getting back to the hotel after eating – and foregoing the evening drinks after the previous day – they all head to their separate rooms, planning to meet in the morning and go up to the field at a reasonable time for meet and greets and sound checks. Dan wanders to his room at the end of the hallway and Kyle is still following him, taking him by surprise. He opens the door and lets them both in to the now familiar surroundings.

 

“Hey,” Dan says to Kyle as he sits in the bed.

 

“Hey,” Kyle replies softly, and walks over to him to cradle the man’s head in his arms and pull him against his body. Dan can feel soft tears falling from his eyes, caused by frustration, anxiety and tiredness and he gently sobs against his lover. “I got you,” Kyle simply says softly and continues to hold him, pressing soft kisses to the top of his head until his sobs start to recede and he becomes still.

 

“Come on,” Kyle then says and coaxes him up the bed. He pulls his top over his head lightly, undoes his shoes and pulls them from his feet. Finally, he gets Dan to change his jeans into pyjamas and lies him back on the pillows. Kyle makes quick work of his own clothes and slides in behind Dan. He wraps his strong but slender arms around his partner and kisses him chastely on the shoulder.

 

“I’m not going to let anything happen, OK?” He says quietly into the singer’s ear, and Dan nods gently against his chest. They fall asleep quickly, wrapped in each other’s arms – Kyle trying his best to protect the man he loved and Dan feeling the safest he had ever been.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All comments and kudos welcome!! x


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter Thirty

Waking up with Kyle draped around his felt amazing after how useless and alone he had felt the previous night. He moves his back closer to his lover for warmth and Kyle’s arms instinctively hold him tighter. He could feel Kyle’s breath on the back of his neck, sending shivers the entire way down his spine and directly to his morning arousal he had woken up with.

 

He shifts his hips and he can feel the other man reciprocating in kind and this draws a small moan from his lips.

 

“I was wondering when you were going to wake up,” the voice low and seductive in his ear. Kyle moves his hands to slowly caress the singer’s torso, fingers teasing at his nipples softly as they pass. He starts kissing slowly and gently to the nape of Dan’s neck and behind his ear, where he knows his partner is most responsive. Dan tries to turn in his arms to face him, but his arms clamp down on him to keep him in place so he can continue to kiss and lick his neck and ears.

 

When Dan becomes a shivering and moaning mess just from his lips and hands, Kyle pulls him backwards so he is lying in the bed, and he moves to straddle his hips and look at him properly. As he gazes down into the beautiful and open face of his lover, he still can’t believe that the man below him wants to be with him and is willing to go through all this trouble for him.

 

He drops his lips to the other man’s for a long languorous kiss that leads to Dan trying to buck his hips into Kyle’s so that there is friction against his straining cock. Kyle manages to remove Dan’s pyjama trousers and prepare his partner with great care before sliding himself into Dan’s waiting heat swiftly. They both still while Dan becomes attuned to the fullness, and when he does he wraps his legs around the younger man’s and pulls him further towards him.

 

Kyle grinds slowly and surely against him, not wanting to rush anything and to take his time feeling every inch of the man he would give anything for. He gazes into azure blue eyes, hooded and lust blown as they look back up into his own. He shifts his hips slightly and the gasp and scream that comes from the wanton man underneath him lets him know he has hit the bundle of nerves he was looking for.

 

Neither man lasts long after this. Kyle is wanting to draw it out, to soothe and relax the singer for what they both know is going to come later that day, but spurred on by the gasps, moans and screams of his own name from _his_ Dan just increases his speed until both he and Dan come at the same time, the man under him coming completely untouched.

 

As they both come down from the high they were both driven to, the only noise is panting for breath from either man.

 

\---

 

The boys head down to breakfast separately after Kyle heads for his own room as stealthily as he is able. Making it down first, Dan joins Charlie and Sharon who have claimed their regular table and who look as happy as ever, holding hands under the table and laughing at secret jokes.

 

“Morning guys.” Dan says as he approaches. “You ready for today?” he asks Sharon directly.

 

“Nervous,” she answers. “ _Really_ nervous.” And Charlie lift her hand to his lips to kiss them.

 

“I’ve told her she’ll be fine; just remember everything she’s practised.”

 

“It’s true.” Dan adds. “If it helps, I’ll probably fall over so I’ll be the one embarrassing us,” he says self-deprecatingly.

 

That’s when everyone else starts to arrive and sit down. Coffee and food start to arrive for them all and they all tuck in to it, especially Dan and Kyle who had already had an energising morning. Margaret and Dave both come in and sit down at a separate table and Dan looks over to them out of the corner of his eye. He catches Kyle’s eye as he looks back at the rest of the group.

 

“Hey Sharon, I didn’t realise that your mum and Dave knew each other so well.” Dan asks, nonchalantly.

 

“Oh, yeah.” She says quietly. “They’ve known each other since before I was born. _Uncle_ Dave,” she says with malice in her voice.

 

That surprised Dan. Whatever he was expecting the answer to be, he didn’t quite think that would be it. Although it did explain how she was able to get hold of Dave so quickly after the school concert.

 

Dan downs another cup of coffee and looks at the others as they finish up their food.

 

“So we ready to head over then?” He says as he looks at his watch to see they had about three hours before they needed to get things set up. The others all nod and murmur in agreement and they all stand to head out.

 

“Oh, guys!” comes the call from the corner of the room. “Wait for us, we’ll be coming to watch everything today.” Dave says.

 

“Well, we’re heading off now Dave, so hurry up.” Will says before anyone else, uncharacteristically annoyed.

 

They all get back into the tight mini bus, with obvious tension in the air. Dan sits alone again, with headphones on trying to concentrate on the songs he had chosen for today’s set. Woody, Kyle and Will all sit on the back seat together, trying to keep Sharon’s morale up and Dave and Margaret watch them all from the front of the bus, like hawks, just waiting for something to go wrong.

 

\---

 

Arriving at the festival ground was completely different than Friday. The area was swarming out front with guests and patrons and the backstage areas was busy with runners for different groups and PA’s trying to find different demands for the bigger names.

 

They all jump off the bus and meet up with the stage managers allocated to them and they run through the times for set up and sound check before their performance. They all get their performer’s wristbands so that they can get access to all backstage areas – this time they are a fetching vibrant violet colour. Sharon was in total shock as everything was happening very quickly around her, but to her credit she was trying to keep up and was paying attention to everything. They get taken to the tent being used as the green room so they can relax until their times for the meet and greets are announced and they have to go out and meet the fans.

 

Finding solace in the back corner of the tent where there is a large table big enough for them all to sit at, the band grab some soft drinks to take with them and relax on the supplied wicker garden furniture. There was a big screen on the ‘wall’ of the tent so that they could watch the other acts perform at the tents and see the crowd.

 

“That’s a really big crowd,” Sharon says as she watches them on the television. Charlie moves closer to her to comfort and support her with her nerves.

 

Dan sees Kyle looking toward him when he hears her say that. He shoots his lover a small smile to try and tell him he was OK. Dan still got nervous before a gig, and while festivals were always shorter than their own concerts, they were always filled with other people’s fans as well as their own so it always made him doubly nervous.

 

Suddenly Coop was rushing towards them looking concerned. “Oh this doesn’t look good,” Dan observes as he gets closer.

 

“Dan, I need you and Kyle please,” Coop says as he rushes forward. The two men look at each other and shrug as they get up to follow their dedicated sound man out of the tent. He leads them to a quieter area outside where the concert organisers had set up a smoking area before he has to tell them whatever news he needed to.

 

“Now, don’t hate me guys,” he starts.

 

“Oh this is starting really good Coop,” Kyle interrupts, and Dan elbows him in the ribs so that Coop can continue.

 

“I’ve been looking at all the files for the set list, and Warmth is corrupt.”

 

“Corrupt? How did that happen?” Dan asks incredulously.

 

Coop just shrugs and nods his head as if to say, _‘your guess is as good as mine’_.

 

“Have you got a backup number?” Coop asks.

 

Dan leans back against a chair they were standing next to, and thinks hard. Suddenly inspiration hits and he just says, “yeah, cue Power for the first song.”

 

“You sure Dan?” Kyle asks. “Sharon’s only gone through that once,” he clarifies.

 

“Yup, do it.” He says to Coop and the man nods quickly and rushes off again to get things sorted for them.

 

“OK,” Dan says turning to Kyle, “let’s go and tell the others.”

 

They both walk through the tent again and towards the laughing and crowing coming from the back corner where they had left the others. Everyone turns to them as they approach.

 

“Everything alright?” Will asks.

 

“We’ve had to change a song, something to do with corrupt sound files.” Kyle says to him.

 

Sharon’s face pales immediately, and Charlie hugs her tight again.

 

“We’ve had to change Warmth for Power.” Dan says. “When we head out for the meet and greet, stay here with Charlie, find somewhere quiet and go over it quickly OK?” He looks directly at the girl with kind eyes and she just nods quickly in agreement.

 

At that moment the assistant sorting out the meet and greets runs over to the them to let them know they’re needed for their times. The four of them follow her out, and Dave starts following them, pulling Dan back by the arm behind the rest of the men.

 

“Dave! What?” Dan asks, surprised at the contact.

 

“What’s going on Dan?” He demands.

 

“One of the music files was fucked up so we had to make a change to the set list!” Dan says, “Nothing exciting, nothing we haven’t done before.” He clarifies to the man.

 

“Seriously Dan, I’m watching everything,” the manager says maliciously.

 

“Oh, well aware,” Dan replies to him and heads off after the rest of them.

 

\---

 

The meet and greets go without a hitch. Dan is his normal charming self as are the rest of them, and the fans al seem to leave the tent happy and excited, looking forward to their performance later that day.

 

Once that had been done, they’re transported over to the performance tent where they are met by Charlie and Sharon to sound check the instruments and microphones. Dan runs through some vocal warm ups with Sharon while the other’s do their own warm ups and preparations. At the end he hands the girl a full bottle of water for her to take on with her.

 

“You’ll need this,” he says to her. “You ready?” he asks.

 

All she does is nod slowly, with wide eyes as she watches the crew set up the instruments and staging on the stage in front of her. Margaret suddenly appears and pulls her into an over enthusiastic hug, crying about how proud she was and how talented her baby was. All Dan can do is watch the girl’s eyes and see the resentment of the woman burning inside them.

 

It was then time for them to all take the stage and as they walk on the deafening screams and cries from the audience automatically blasted into Dan’s ears. He looks out over the sea of faces and waving hands and as always, the small hint of fear crept into his head.

 

What if the crowd hate him? What if ‘the plan’ backfires? What if he forgets all the words to his own songs? These are just a few of the hypothetical worries swimming around his head until the first notes of Power start to play in his ear and all he can think is the first line for his song.

 

_“Aim for your best shot right at me_

_‘Cos pain I can take it easily._

_Did you really think I’d fall to my knees?_

_Just to pray for some sweet simplicity.”_

Just singing the words made him feel free from all the shit his manager has thrown at him over the past month. Hearing the sweet low timbre of Kyle’s voice from beside him also helped him to feel more at ease as he did his signature dance moves across the stage.

 

Every time he sang the chorus he made sure to look at the side of the stage to see Dave and Margaret watching him and he made sure they knew he was singing this song directly to them. He could see flares of anger in the man’s face when he realised what he was doing, but there was nothing he was able to do to stop it.

 

The next four songs went by without a hitch. Sharon’s voice was mixing in very well with the rest of them and he couldn’t detect any flaws in her parts at all. He had made sure he had completed the set he always did, jumping up and down and moving around as much as he could. The crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves and he knew that the song he was waiting for had come.

 

“How you doing Cornwall?!” He shouts out to the crowd and gets the normal shrieks and screams back at him. “We’ve only got two songs left for you, and then we’ll let you get on with your day,” and he hears the moans that indicate they aren’t happy it’s almost over. “So, for this next song, I’m gonna need a little bit of help. As you might have noticed I’m really fucking terrible at dancing so we want you guys to help us out with this one.” He says. This speech is now so second nature to him he doesn’t even have to think about what he says. “During this next song I’m gonna shout ‘ _everybody get down’_ , and that’s your cue to get down with me and then well all jump around together and I’ll look a little bit less stupid.” He says. “Hopefully,” he adds on at the end. He takes a swig from his water bottle and puts it back down as the familiar notes for Of the Night come from Kyle’s fingers.  

 

He starts the beginning of the song. He sings the haunting notes he changed from the jaunty dance track he was obsessed with when he was younger. When he shouts for everyone to get down, a lot of them do, and then the chorus starts and he starts beating the rhythm out on his drum whilst jumping with the crowd.

 

Getting down for the second verse, he slides a quick look over to Kyle to see if he is looking when he does get down on his knees, and he can see the smirk on the face of his lover when he looks at him writhing on the floor. He gets up quickly for the next chorus and sings along with the beat.

 

Then, as if in slow motion, he sees Kyle walking towards him with his own drumstick to beat out his own part of the drumming – a part which is done in every concert they’ve done since starting. They complete the piece of music as Dan finishes the song.

 

“This is the rhythm of the night, the night, oh yeah.” He finishes.

 

Before Kyle can make his way back to his synths like he normally does. Dan grasps him by the wrist and pulls him back towards him. Time moving so quickly now, he puts his other hand behind his lover’s neck and crashes their lips together in a smouldering, heated kiss.

 

\---

 

_tbc_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the cliffhanger guys!  
> Hope you enjoy. Please stay safe out there.  
> Kudos and Comments (good and bad) always welcomed.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter Thirty One

There was a brief second of silence from the crowd, and then an eruption of cheering and screaming which was more than Dan had heard in a while. Encouraged by the cries of appreciation and squeals, Kyle wraps his hands and arms around Dan’s waist and pulls him closer to him to deepen the kiss slightly further. He finally pulls away and winks at the singer before he swaggers back to his synths to play the final song.

 

Dan follows behind him to his own keyboard and clears his throat before carrying on as if nothing has happened.

 

“So, um, yeah. So if you know the next song why don’t you sing along with us?” And this is all he says before starting their breakout song and finishing the set. The crowd sings along animatedly and jumps around with them until the song finishes. Dan thanks them all appreciatively and they all make it off the stage, Dan and Kyle both being jumped on by both Woody and Will in their excitement.

 

\---

 

They manage to make it back to the green room tent before seeing anyone else. Margaret and Dave were noticeable by their absence, but Dan and Kyle couldn’t care less. They were finally able to openly show their love, and Kyle is plastered to Dan’s side for the entire journey back.

 

Back at the tent they manage to get their corner table back and they all sit down together. There is silence for a minute while they all look at each other. Dan and Kyle sit next to each other, Kyle’s arm wrapped around Dan’s middle and hugging him close. Charlie and Sharon just look at them.

 

“A heads up would have been nice you idiot!” Is all Charlie says to him. “Bloody hell, trying to do Pompeii after that was a nightmare!” and they all laugh together.

 

“Poor Sheeran trying to go after that,” Woody laughs, excitedly.

 

“Was worth it though,” Dan says, looking intently at his boy. “I need ice cream,” he decides randomly and gets up. Kyle makes some sort of noise as he tries to extricate himself from his arms and pouts at him. Dan chuckles and leans forward to press a kiss to his lips. “I’m getting _ice cream_!” he insists and pulls away.

 

He heads off towards the ice cream kiosk set up full of creative gelato flavours for the artists and looks at the flavours while he decides what to order.

 

“What are you thinking Dan?” he hears from directly behind him.

 

“Currently? Deciding between honeycomb or peppermint chocolate chip…” he replies.

 

“Don’t be so bloody flippant boy,” Dave says angrily, moving round so that he is looking directly at the singer. “Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?”

 

“Um, yeah.” Dan says, still looking at the ice cream. “I think I just came out,” he adds.

 

“So what are you gonna do?” Dave asks with frustration as Dan gets to the front of the queue. Dan says hi to the girl behind the kiosk.

 

“I think I’ll actually have a scoop of both,” he says to the girl and looks at Dave while he waits for the dairy goodness to come to him.

 

“I just want to say,” the girl cuts in before Dave can reply, “I think what you did was amazing on stage. And I’m so happy that you’re with Kyle…” and she starts gushing about how it was always something all of her friends wanted to happen as she hands the tub over.

 

Dan gives a sideways glance to his manager who is just gaping at the girl with a look of shock on his face. He starts to walk back to the corner of the tent.

 

“Looks like I’m not going to do anything,” he says to the man over his shoulder and sits down next to Kyle again.

 

“Ooh,” Kyle squeals and takes the ice cream offered to him off of the singer’s spoon.

 

The TV is still blaring on the wall nearby and they can see Ed Sheeran coming on to the stage to start his set.

 

 _“Well, I’m not going to be able to top that Cornwall! But let’s give it up for Bastille and Dan and Kyle!!”_ And there’s more screaming and shouting from the crowd as they all support them. With that, Dan looks at Dave with a smirk to see the man getting redder and redder as he gets angrier.

 

“What is the actual problem Uncle Dave?” Sharon pipes up from the corner. “This is pretty amazing. And now everyone is happy, so all sorted right?” The manager looks at the girl and tries to smile as he walks away. Dan watches his back as he goes and smiles again for what feels like the thousandth time that afternoon.

 

\---

 

They never saw Margaret before they got back to the hotel, so it was in bar where they had all gathered for a post-gig drink when she stalked towards them, disgust and disappointment showing clearly on her face.

 

“So, I warned you. I told you what would happen if this came out!” She shouted to them as she prowled towards them.

 

All four members of the band rolled their eyes in unison as they heard her come towards them. Will stands up to get between the woman and the lovers in front of her.

 

“Margaret, come on, shall we leave this to later?” He says calmly, trying to be the voice of reason.

 

“No! I said I was going to call the police and I am going to as soon as we get home.” She threatens to all of them.

 

“Police? Mum, what for?” Sharon exclaims at the same time Charlie says; “Police?”

 

“Yes, for what they did to you in that school!” She shouts again.

 

“Mum, they didn’t do anything! You can’t accuse them without me agreeing! And I don’t!” and in that moment Dan felt a rush of affection towards the girl he had hated until so very recently.

 

Dan pulls his phone out of his pocket and loads up the photo he had taken of Margaret and Dave on Friday night. He stands up and moves closer to the woman currently shouting and making a commotion in front of so many people.

 

“Margaret, let’s have a quiet word shall we?” He says calmly and walks towards an empty table.

 

She follows him over, scoffing at him and stating he would be very sorry about everything soon enough. Ignoring her empty threats, he puts his phone, screen up, on the table in front of them and she leans forward to scrutinise it.

 

“So I’m sure that Sharon and your husband won’t be happy to see this will they?” Is all Dan says, before he picks up phone again to put it on standby. He starts to walk away, and stops right next to the woman. “Stop. Attacking. Us.” He hisses in her ear and walks back to his boyfriend and friends.

 

He gets back to the table, sits down on Kyle’s lap, puts his hand around his lover’s neck and pulls him forward into a hard, blistering kiss. He runs his tongue against the seam of Kyle’s mouth and slips his tongue in teasingly to lap at his mouth, before pulling away.

 

“What was that for?” Kyle pants.

 

“Just wanted to prove a point,” Dan replies, staring at the woman glaring at him from where he had left her. With that she turns on her heel and walks out of the room.

 

\---

  **EPILOGUE**

\---

There’s an insistent knock on the hotel door, and the man inside stops the packing he is doing to go and answer it. He answer’s it and sees the middle aged blond woman glaring at him from the doorway, so he opens the door to let her inside before anyone can see.

 

“This is a mess, Margaret,” Dave says to her as she walks past him and sits on the sofa in the room.

 

“It hasn’t gone to plan, I must admit.” She accedes to the man. “But you still have them until after the summer, so there is still plenty of time to sort it all out and do what we planned.”

 

“Do you think it’s really worth it after everything we’ve tried so far?” Dave asks, unsure whether this was even what he wanted anymore.

 

The woman stands up and walks seductively towards him. She brings her hand up to caress the man’s arm and starts to stroke up towards his face and cups his jaw.

 

“Are you saying you don’t want your daughter to have the absolute best in this life David?” She purrs at him and pulls him in for a chaste kiss on the lips.

 

“OK,” the man says. Margaret laughs internally. He had always been easy to play. A patsy that she would be able to play off as a crazed stalker if everything went wrong. But it would get her what she needed for her precious daughter and that was to headline this band.

 

“And remember, no one ever finds out that Sharon is yours.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...wow guys! That's the end of this part! I have plenty of ideas for whats to come next, so will get the first chapters up probably next week at some point. 
> 
> Thanks for staying with me through this! Didn't expect to let it run on this long!
> 
> Comments and Kudos are always loved.


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